Follow Friday Newsletter: 15 April 2011

This Week in Genea-Blogging

We like vintage everything

... but especially vintage ads. Read these. But not while you are drinking anything. “Vintage Ads to Make Your Jaw Drop” at Family Trees May Contain Nuts.


Well, Susan Petersen has gone and done it now

She has inspired me to try to create a website (as well as the final push to get off my tush and set up a Genealogy Toolbox). In “My New Website” on Long Lost Relatives.net, she introduces the website and describes how easy it is to use Weebly.com to create one.


And soon after I set up the toolbox

I read dkaysdays’ “Tuesday’s Tip: Build a Research Toolbox and Include Cornell’s Making of America” at the d kay s days blog. More excellent advice.


Right after I wrote

“What I Learned Wednesday” and mentioned the Genealogy Toolkit and Family Tree Magazine’s list of Civil War resources, I saw The Genealogy Insider’s “Civil War Genealogy Resources,” including Family Tree’s “Civil War Genealogy Toolkit.” Some useful sites there.


In line with the Civil War themes this week

Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog has written about “The Census Goes to War.” He includes some surprising details about the enumeration of slaves in the censuses.


Print ‘em and save ‘em

At The Erudite Genealogist, Jennifer has posted “Research Trips - What to Bring and Planning Tips” in response to Kathleen Moore’s request for advice at The Misadventures of a Genealogist. This is an excellent list with explanations for why these items will be useful.


Another handy-dandy reference sheet

comes from Phillip Trauring at Blood and Frogs, who has created an aid for “Finding US Naturalization Records” on his blog (it is under the “Naturalization” page, which contains a list of states, cities, and years for which naturalization records can be ordered from the National Archives). Very helpful! He also has a fascinating post on “Jewish Gravestone Symbols” (and it doesn’t hurt that there is a Star Trek reference in it, too).


Oodles of free books online - including genealogy books - yours for the taking

as cataloged by James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star in “Read genealogy books online - a survey of sources.” You know you’re drooling.


Read the final chapter ...

of the story of Heather Rojo’s ancestor’s Revolutionary War discharge paper at NARA in “The National Archives - They read my blog!?” at Nutfield Genealogy. Why our National Archives really are a treasure.


Two things that cause a lot of detours

Leslie Albrecht Huber writes about “Two Common Mistakes People Make Tracing Immigrant Ancestors” at The Journey Takers Blog. I bet we’d be rich if we had a dollar for every time a researcher made one of these mistakes.


Make sure that everyone can enjoy your blog

In “Is Your Blog Accessible?” Denise Olson at Moultrie Creek Gazette passes on some tips for ensuring that our blogs are accessible to people with disabilities.


The “what” and “where” of probate

Randy Seaver’s “Tuesday’s Tip - Find Probate Records of your Ancestors” at Genea-Musings outlines the information you can find in these records and where you are most likely to find them. I would add  local libraries to the list (at least in some counties) as another good place to check for microfilms of probate records.


Don’t miss

“Myrt’s Day at the Archives” at Dear Myrtle’s Genealogy Blog - she describes in detail the procedures researchers must go through at the National Archives and the methods she uses for making copies of documents.


Never stop learning

Debbie Parker Wayne at Deb’s Delvings in Genealogy has some excellent ideas on “Educational Sources for Historical Context” for our family histories, including a few less traditional resources.


I really like this list

Marian Burk Wood’s “Wisdom Wednesday: Five Things to Do Before I Become an Ancestor” at Climbing My Family Tree. Superb advice which covers a lot of territory.


And finally

The event we’ve been waiting for ... "The Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge Is Here!" at Bill West’s West in New England blog. (Bet I’m not the only blogger who was writing, writing, writing and rushing, rushing, rushing.) Bill has done an outstanding job of writing up this impressive collection of posts!


Wow. This was a busy week.


For more suggested blog reading,

check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.


This week I started following these blogs:

A Patient Genealogist

Adventures in Brown County Genealogy

Branches of Our Tree

Collecting dead relatives ... and live cousins!

Finding Kline

Judiology

Remembering Those Who Came Before Us

Who Knew?

The New Genealogist

Up In The Tree

Bogs and Brooklyn


My Research Week

As mentioned in my previous post and above, I have been inspired by Susan Clark of Nolichucky Roots to follow her new theme, Civil War Saturday, and by Susan Petersen of Long Lost Relatives.net to set up a website and to put my genealogy toolbox on a separate page on my blog before migrating it to the website. So that’s a bit of what I did this week (well, I set up the Toolbox, at least). And, in addition, to my Civil War-related research, I worked some on one of my husband’s lines, the Fichtelmanns.

Thank you to Hillary at Telling Their Tale: The Stories of My Ancestor for the One Lovely Blog Award. Check out her blog!