Friday, November 26, 2010

Friday Newsletter and Follow News 26 November 2010

This Week in Genea-Blogging

The Journey Begins …

the one many of us have waited to read about … with Big Butt and Tana! Oh, yes, and with Carol and Man, too. This is the kind of trip many of us dream about, one with no firm plans, deadlines, or destinations, just taking it one day at a time. Read about the beginning in “THE Trip, And, We Are Off” and “THE Trip, Silos, Folk Art and The Windmills of Indiana” at Reflections from the Fence (as well as in subsequent installments).


“I LOVE the citizens of Lincolnville, Indiana!”

So begins a wonderful postscript on Lisa Swansom Ellam’s saga of the photo of a reunion of her Brane family – how these kind people were instrumental in saving a part of Lisa’s family heritage is described in “Why a 150 year old piece of log cabin is sitting in my kitchen” on Lisa’s blog, The Faces of My Family.


An Amazing Story

Angela Walton-Raji at My Ancestor’s Name came across the story of Moses McElroy in a book by Emilee Mason and found it so compelling that she has started to do some genealogical and historical research on this story, which actually has a connection to one of her ancestors. I’m not going to give the story away; read about it in “The Story of Thomas ‘Moses’ McElroy – An Arkansas Tale of Civility in the Civil War.”


A Voice in the Wilderness

James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star writes in frustration about “Some of the many things I don’t understand about genealogy.” He’s not alone. But then again, we have the company of our fellow genealogists and family historians, who do understand. That’s why I read blogs, go to genealogical society meetings, and attend genealogy conferences. I guess it’s as much to keep me sane is it is for educational purposes.


Why I Am Not a Professional Genealogist

Not that I don’t want to get the education of a professional, but as a pro I would end up doing exactly what Sheri Fenley writes about at The Educated Genealogist in “Client Work – A Love/Hate Relationship?”


This Stuff Is Going to Affect Our Research

Dear Myrtle at DearMyrtle’s Genealogy Blog provides a real eye-opening write-up of the NARA users’ group meeting she attended in “Why I learned at the NARA users group meeting Friday.” I am so happy to see that members of the genealogy community (a number of them are members of the Fairfax Genealogical Society) attend these meeting and represent our interests.

(Myrt also reported on the following very informative presentations sponsored by the Fairfax Genealogical Society: at the monthly meeting, by Jennifer Dondero on “What I learned from Jennifer Dondero about DAR Apps,” and at the monthly workshop, by Leslie Albrecht Huber in “What I learned from Leslie Albrecht Huber on Saturday.”)


The Thanksgiving Challenge

Susan at Nolichucky Roots took up Cynthia Shenette’s challenge from last week’s post “Reflecting on My American Experience This Thanksgiving” at Heritage Zen and wrote “Thanksgiving: Our American Story.”


Why We Need Family Stories

Diana at Random Relatives has a great post on why we need family stories in “Treasure Chest Thursday – Family Stories.” While we may never get the “whole story” (my recent posts on my ancestors’ court cases and crimes are certainly a case in point), we can keep looking for it, and Diana shows why it’s worthwhile.


One of my favorite features at one of my favorite blogs

‘Cause it’s so appropriate in my case:   “Me Either and Notes to Self” at Lori’s Family Tree May Contain Nuts. If I posted every stupid thing I’d done that fits into this category, I could post every day for the next year.


Last But Not Least

“The Second Great Local Poem and Song Genealogy Challenge” is here at Bill West’s West in New England!


And finally … one more thing

If you do not get your submission in to the 100th Carnival of Genealogy at Jasia’s Creative Gene (deadline is December 1), you are simply going to be missing out on the genea-blogging event of the decade. That’s all I’m sayin’….


Happy First Blogoversary to J. M. at Tracing My Roots!


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 and Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Susan Petersen's Long Lost Relatives.net.


This week I started following these blogs:

They Came Before (thanks for the link, Elizabeth!)

And a blog just made for me:

A Linguist’s Guide to Genealogy

A Sense of Family

Anamnesis

Bridgwater Gene Pool

Caro’s Family Chronicles

Casey’s Genealogy Blog

Cowie and Shields Genealogy

Fairfax Genealogical Society Blog
(How could I not follow this one? It’s my home genealogical society. Great job, Myrt!)

Family Tree Firsts

Fantastic Family Findings

Footsteps of the Past

Gee I Love Genealogy

Northeast Alabama Genealogical Society

Tackling Brick Walls One Brick at a Time

The Gray Taylor

The Hunt for Henrietta

The New England House Historian

They Came Before

Wow! That’s a lot of blogs!


My Research Week

A spooky occurrence on Ancestry

You know how on your home page they have a section entitled, “Recent Member Activity,” supposedly based on your own downloads, etc.? Well, I saw an entry for an Elizabeth Lyons in this section on my page, and I didn’t remember that as a name I had added to any of my family trees (or even as anything I have in my genealogy program), so I clicked on it.  Her husband was Stephen Paton Smith.  This is my favorite candidate family for my big brickwall, Susan Elizabeth Smith!  I must have downloaded something at some time, perhaps something I saved to my Shoebox. But still, it was spooky … Is this a message?  Kerry, what is that psychic’s name, again?


OCR is not always your friend, or: Why I can't find my family names on Genealogy Bank

Some headlines I turned up on Genealogy Bank:

“Shot by Buragina” = Shot by Burglars

“Killed Man and Wipe” = You figure that one out.


Time for some sprucing up

Somthing I noticed this week: my blog needs a lot of maintenance.  I have long meant to add some links, and I also need to update some of my pages, particularly “The Texas Team” and “The Carolina Crew.” Perhaps this weekend….


An early Christmas present

This week I ordered a book from Amazon (Marketplace - for used books) and it just came a couple of days ago:  Conversations with Kid Cougar and Lim Hang High, by Joseph Faulds. It's the book about Bun and Square Brinlee that I mentioned in my post about the brothers.  It's a great read, both for getting a feel for the brothers' personalities and for some genealogical nuggets as well.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for promoting the COG, Greta. I really appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the mention Greta!Stay tuned for more screw-ups, er I mean life lessions in going pro.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the shoutout.

    But, more important, everyone, get to it, start posting, gotta get Jasia to 100!! GO GO GO!!

    Coming to you from Joplin Missouri, I managed to get in a couple of hours of research, my gg grampa! Yea, I will write about it soon! LOL

    Now, got my coffee, I have some catch up reading to do! Thanks for all the great links!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the shout out Greta! And I was glad to see the new to you blogs as I had somehow missed a few you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A great list! We have a lot to be thankful for with these great bloggers, don't we?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the great reading tips and shout out. Just what I needed when I crawled home from shopping. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for the shout out! I love reading the new to you blogs. Those are some great reads!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Greta - Thank you once again for the shout out. I'm so happy Susan wrote about her American experience. It was a great post!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Greta for another great list, and because you mentioned GenealogyBank, a trigger went off in me, and I decided to subscribe, so thank you. A lot of the blogs you mentioned, I follow, and I agree with you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great list...and doncha love those Twilight Zone moments? Sometimes I think that it's genealogists who are psychic. After all, we're the ones who hang out with dead people.

    ReplyDelete
  11. As usual...I really appreciate this Follow Friday. Sometimes, I only have time to read what you recommend. But, at least I feel that I am staying abreast with some of the great weekly posts.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete