This Week in Genea-Blogging
This one got my dander up ...
Not the post, but the book being reviewed. The Minnesota Family Historian addresses an ignorant slander of genealogists in “Book Review: The Genetic Strand.”
Topic of the week
Joan Miller at Luxegen Genealogy writes about “Genea-Bodies: The New Somebodies.” And now that term is showing up in lots of places! Be sure to read the comments as well. This discusison has generated follow-up conversations all over the place right now; I’ll list as many as I can at the bottom of this post.
If you have not checked out
Nancy’s My Ancestors and Me, you definitely should correct that omission. She does some of the best photo analyses - not necessarily for dating pictures, but for figuring out what is going on in a picture. This week she discusses a “Photograph After a Family Argument?” What do you think?
Bill West gets some of the neatest ideas
This week it was to check out his own birth certificate: “What I Learned from my Birth Certificate” at West in New England.
Another slant on the Civil War
Daniel Hubbard muses on the records left by the Civil War on “Seven Score and Ten” at Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog.
A useful new blog
is recommended at Family Tree May Contain Nuts (“Why I Oughtta!!!”): My Favorite Hatemail: Where mean comments go to die. I’m sure at least a few of us have received these.
See how the pros do it
in “Going to Salt Lake City” at The You Go Genealogy Girls. A good overview of how to plan, what to take, how to haul it around, and how to pace yourself.
Things come together in unusual ways
In “A Blog, An Obituary, and a Little 1892 Dress,” Barbara Poole at Life from the Roots explains how all these items are related and came together in a serendipitous string of events.
Congratulations!
to Gen Wish List’s Tina Lyons, who was recently elected Vice President of the Indiana Genealogical Society. Check out the story behind the story in “2011 IGS Conference Recap.”
Getting ready for the big event
At Nutfield Genealogy, Heather Rojo gives a “1940 Census Sneak Peak for Genealogists” as reported in a lecture by Jean Rudd at NERGC.
Keeping track of all that stuff
In “The Genealogy Digital Bookshelf,” Taneya Koonce of Taneya’s Genealogy Blog writes about setting up a new site, her Genealogy Digital Bookshelf, to keep track of e-texts she finds on the Internet Archive.
Uhhh ... check this out ...
“John does genealogy!” at Anglo-Celtic Connections.
Please read
“Death Never Gets the Final Word” by Nancy Shively at Family Tree Firsts. She is right. Genealogy is about “telling the stories of people who can no longer tell them themselves.”
General Land Office Stuff You Should Know About
Check out “BLM Website & NARA provide access to General Land Office paperwork” at DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog.
This week I started following these blogs:
Another Day with Donna
Patching My Family Together
Stories from Many Moons Ago
The Researching Archivist
What’s My Lineage? Confessions of a Lineage Group Junkie
Life, Kids and Genealogy
My Favorite Hate Mail: Where mean comments go to die
My Research Week
There was no "What I Learned Wednesday" this week, and you know why? Because spring cleaning and research don't mix very well. This week's target was my home office. The surprising thing is that my genealogy files and materials were actually in pretty good shape. When I could see them. The problem was that many of them were buried beneath piles of non-genealogy junk. Now that all that stuff is cleared away, I'm ready to tackle my research projects and actually get something done.
More on Genea-Bodies, Fun, Profit, Careers in Genealogy, and Much More
GeneaBloggers - "Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?", "Careers in Genealogy - 'Off the Chart' Thinking," "Genealogy - What Do You Mean It Isn't Free?", and "How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?"
Genea-Musings - “Genealogy - for Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy - My Choices Work for Me”, "TANSTAAFGS"
DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog - “Bloggers and speakers and researchers, oh my!”
Clue Wagon - “In Which We (Finally) Discuss Taboo Stuff”
Tricks of the Tree - “Genea-Bodies: A Response to the Comments”
The Armchair Genealogist - “From the Archives: Can I Turn My Love of Genealogy into a Career?” and “My Career in Genealogy or Today I Made $1.28!!”
The We Tree Genealogy Blog - “Genealogy Blogging: For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy: Charting Your Own Course,” “Free Genealogy Isn’t Free,” and “How Do You Make Money in Genealogy?”
Minnesota Family Historian - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?”, “Careers in Genealogy,” and “What Do You Mean It Isn’t Free”
Amanda’s Athenaeum - “Genealogy Blogging - For Fun or Profit?: My Take” and “How Do I Make Money in Genealogy?”
Bayside Blog - “Diving in Thumbs First: My Take on the Paid Genealogy Debate”
Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories - “Genea-opportunities - we each choose what is right for us”
Family History Research - “Joining the ‘Us vs Them’ Discussion”
Ian Hadden’s Family History - “The Pro Versus Hobbyist Genealogist Debate”
You Are Where You Came From - “Genealogy and Profit: A Hobbyist’s Perspective”
The Family History Researcher - “Charging for Genealogy Services Is Not Bad”
Genealogy Frame of Mind - “Let’s Keep All Genealogy Free...”
Genealogy’s Star - “Money, Money, Money and Genealogy”
The Ancestral Archaeologist - “Freebies of Choice”
I am sure I have missed quite a few posts and for that I apologize; there are also a number of discussions on Facebook.
For more suggested blog reading,
check out “Best Bytes for the Week” at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net, “Follow Friday: This Week’s Faves” at Jen’s Climbing My Family Tree, and “Monday Morning Mentions” at Lynn Palermo’s The Armchair Genealogist.
Greta, I'm delighted you liked this post. Thank you too for the mention.
ReplyDeleteThanks Greta for the shout out!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention, Greta!
ReplyDeleteThanks for mentioning my 1940 Census post. And thanks for the list of folks who responded to the "GeneaBodies" post- what a great assortment of opinions!
ReplyDeleteGreat, Thanks for noting my blog with the shout out!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the mention!
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing readers to my blog and the post about the family photo. I appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for listing the posts in the 'Fun, Profit, Careers' series. I was busy all week so I'd missed a lot of them. Working on the principle of 'Better Late Than Never', I have now added my point of view at Genealogy Leftovers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Greta, as usual! I was able to see a lot of things I had missed!
ReplyDeleteGreta,
ReplyDeleteThanks for gathering all the Genea-Bodies and Genea-Opportunities posts in one place. Also a very nice wrap up of the week's blogging highlights. I appreciate you taking the time to do that and for the mention!
Before you dismiss books at someone else's misgivings, you might want to read the book. I loved the book and I can't see what your poster was seeing.
ReplyDeletehttp://mhollick.typepad.com/slovakyankee/2007/12/much-hairdo-about-nothing.html
Thank you for the link. I feel so bad for some bloggers who get discouraged by a nasty comment. I hope that they all know that the blogging community will have your back when this happens.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, Tina, Bill, Heather, Ian, Amanda, Nancy, Joan, and Lori - thanks to all of you for providing edifying and entertaining reading!
ReplyDeleteJudy - Your posts will be in this week's newsletter!
Lori - It certainly is easy to miss things, especially in a "posting rich" week such as this last week.
Martin, I am sure that you did love the book and that it served up many judgments and opinions that you agree with. I am not going to buy the book - that’s the point of reading reviews, to use them to make the decision as to whether the books warrant doling out the money. The offending material was given, if I am not mistaken, in a direct quote from the book. It bears no resemblance to the cross-section of people engaged in genealogical/family research that I have encountered (I admit that I have only six years of experience, but I have been active enough to think that what I have seen is a representative sample) and it was enough to clue me into the little world of self-righteous prejudices that the author lives in. I have encountered and read enough of that kind of self-indulgent crap (the “litany of race, class, and gender” referred to by Minnesota Family Historian) and do not wish to subsidize it through a purchase of the book (or even waste my reading time or add to its checkout record at one of the local libraries that I use).
ReplyDeleteI had some slave-owning ancestors. I am not proud of that fact, but they were what they were - a product of their time and culture, and not people with the insight to see the immorality of slavery or the scruples to reject it. But taking a cold, hard look at our ancestors does not mean painting them as monsters any more than it means whitewashing their faults.