Friday, July 16, 2010

Follow Friday: GeneaBlogie

GeneaBlogie, authored by Craig Manson, was one of my first genealogy blog discoveries and it is still one of my absolute favorites. Craig’s latest project is the “Grand Genealogy Journey” – a little bit like his original “Big Train Trip” series, but this time a “virtual genealogical dream trip” which details both the sights he would see and the (research) sites he would visit. Craig knows a lot about these places and has done the research; the advice on how to prepare for the research part and what things to see is first-rate.

GeneaBlogie includes genealogy news, reports on Craig’s own family research, thought pieces and personal observations, and articles on a number of different genealogy-related subjects. His education and professional background are amazingly broad and deep, and it shows in his command of the subjects he covers and superb writing. Both on GeneaBlogie and as a guest columnist on Shades of the Departed, he has written on many of the legal issues that come up in the genealogical community. On of these articles covered a subject that always inspires discussion (and controversy) among genealogists: “The Discussion about Standards, Certification, Maturity, etc.: Useful or Divisive? Elitist Envy or Intellectual Inevitability?”

One of my big regrets is that Craig used to live in my neck of the woods, but now lives out on the other side of the country from me (in my old home state!), but I still have hopes that we’ll meet at a genealogy convention some day. Meanwhile, I’m with him in spirit on that great train trip….



This Week

Lots of lists this week – the What I Do meme from GeneaBloggers is still going strong, Randy Seaver’s SNGF assignment is to list our top genealogy sites (actually, to rank a list of sites provided in an NEHGS poll), and Elyse at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog has “10 Things I Can’t Live Without.”

Happy First Blogoversary to Renate at Into the Light. Renate has written a very thoughtful post on how blogging has helped her to grow as a writer and researcher but also brought some pain. I know I join many other readers of her blog in wishing her all the best and hoping fervently that she will return to blogging soon.

In “Four Tried and True Systems for Organizing Genealogy Research,” Denise Levenick of The Family Curator describes and provides links to four systems for taming the disorganized genealogy beasts and includes “Ten Tips for Organizing Genealogy Research” for good measure.

At Ernie’s Journeys, Ernie Margheim writes about his return to one of his favorite hobbies after a couple of years of overcoming some health problems in “Back to My Passion of Gardening.” I know that the subject is not genealogy, strictly speaking, but for those of us who have been following Ernie’s latest “journey,” this is welcome news and there are lots of pretty pictures!

Carol at Reflections from the Fence gives the real scoop on how much work goes into volunteer projects such as county cemetery books in “The Queens of Do-Overs!”

Nolichucky Roots addresses one of the biggest worries of genealogists, preserving our research, in “Madness Monday: If I Die….” The topic is continued over at Documenting the Details in “Preserving Your Research for Posterity.”

In “The Holy Grail: New Genealogists,” Marian Pierre-Louis at Roots and Rambles provides pointers on how genealogy-related organizations can attract new people to genealogy.

In “Timelines,” The Ancestral Archaeologist (Liz Haigney Lynch) writes about the stretching out of generations that often runs counter to our expectations concerning time between generations.

Read a heartwarming story in “We Did It! Reuniting a MIA soldier’s dog tags with family” at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. It is especially fascinating to see the various elements of the story come into play: the gentleman in Germany who purchased the tags, the relatives in this country and what they knew about the soldier, and how everything came together.



Around the Genea-Blogosphere:

Sincerest condolences to Kathleen of Tracing Descendants on the loss of her grandmother.

Happy First Blogoversary to Leslie Ann at Lost Family Treasures!

Happy Blogoversary to Jenna at Desperately Seeking Surnames!



This week I started following these blogs:

Family Epic (and added it to the Texas Team)

Leaf, Stem, Branch, and Root (and added it to the Texas Team)

Passage to the Past’s Blog

The Jones Genealogist

4 comments:

  1. Appreciate the shout out. I have read some of the others on your list, they are great. The ones I have not read, will get read as soon as this posts! I find new wonderful blogs every week thanks to your Follow Fridays.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Greta--Thanks for the kind words about GeneaBlogie! We got off to a slow start in 2010, but there's good stuff waiting in the queue.

    And thanks also for being such a thoughtful and valued member of our genea-blogging community. It would be an honor to meet you at a conference one of these days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carol - I am so happy to have helped!

    Craig - It was easy to write - I have so much fun reading your blog (and so much learning slips in there in such an enjoyable way). Til we meet!

    ReplyDelete
  4. And in the category of better late than never - thanks for the mention. (I'm obviously a little behind in my blog reading.)

    ReplyDelete