Follow Friday - June 1, 2012

I am really enjoying this being off for the summer from school break! I actually get to read blogs and pick and choose my favorite posts and then share them with you here on my blog! So here are some interesting finds I had this week. Oh and the photo of the ducks. I pulled it off of Google Images. I'm sure it belongs to a business who sells ducks. But when I fed the image back into the Google Images site, it was being used by so many different websites, including blogs, that I couldn't drill down to the original owner. So if you own it, let me know and I will attribute! I promise!

First up is from Lynn Palermo of The Armchair Genealogist. She wrote a post "Mind Mapping for Genealogists." I have heard of using Mind Mapping software for genealogy before, but I had always thought it required the fancy expensive versions of the software. Lynn reminds us that the free versions work just as well. And she included a simple graphic of it to illustrate what it may look like.

Next up is the Genealogics  blog by Matthew. I actually came across him on Twitter. I received an email that he had started following me. I promptly checked out his Twitter profile (@genealogics) and saw he was an avid genealogist and active tweeter and new to blogging. I then checked out his blog which I found to be nicely laid out and well-written. He had already posted photos and research "problems;" though he saw them also as "opportunities" so there is an optimist in there as well. I loved his by-line of "a tree-lific journey into family history." So please check out his tweets and his new blog and make sure to leave a comment and say hello.

I answered a prompt on LinkedIn which asked which of your blog posts were the most popular and what topics did they cover. My answer was this: One post "Am I an Evidence-based or Conclusion Based Genealogist?" and "How I use my Genealogy Software." What do these two posts have in common? They talk about SOURCES. This is a HUGE topic in genealogy circles these days. Well another reader posted her response from her blog, Essex Voices Past, as "Tuesday’s Tip – Interpreting primary sources – the 6 ‘w’s." I can totally see why this post has been so popular. Recreated from tips learned from the author's tutors at the UK's Open University lecture series, this article discusses how to interpret primary sources and go beyond just pulling names from them. If you've ever wondered if there was more out there, then read this post and you won't be disappointed!

Randy from Genea-Musings shared his experiences with the Ancestry.com online family trees in his post "Adding a Story to my Ancestry Member Tree."  In this post he showed how extended notes and descriptions can be included in your online tree by using the "Stories" feature. He warned, however, that your Stories can be easily copied to other trees, as well as information posted to websites. If you are sensitive to the information you post on your personal websites being copied to others' online family trees, then you might want to keep on eye on these stories in Ancestry.com, or keep your information off the internet. Ancestry.com will alert you to other members who are researching the same lines as you.

Follow Friday - May 25th 2012

I had such a nice time reading blog posts from my friends last week and sharing with everyone that I decided to do it again this week. Not surprising, posts from the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Conference that went on a couple of weeks ago are still trickling in. I really enjoy those because you get the down to earth sense of what message the really got from each speaker. Some were positive and some not so positive.

Kim von Aspern-Parker of Le Maison Duchamp wrote about an NGS speaker who professed that using the internet was, plain and simple, "Bad Genealogy." She refuted this claim with examples of how the internet can and should be used to help us perform "Good Genealogy."

Michael Hait of Planting the Seeds also posted a list of blogs published by certified genealogists that I started following recently and wanted to share with you. If you are interested in reading about Copyright Law, Citations and Source Writing, Legal Genealogy, etc and topics of a more professional nature, then check out these professional genealogists' blogs. Not every blog is related to professional genealogy of course, but there is a good mix to pick and choose from that you can add to your Reader.

Harold Henderson of the Midwestern Microhistory Blog gave us a very good review of what you would expect to find in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSq) magazine that is included in your membership dues with topics covering plagiarism, newspapers, immigration research, and Civil War research. Have you read up on your NGSq lately? (I read mine during lunch time).

Follow Friday - 18 May 2012

I don't do Follow Fridays much anymore mostly because I can't seem to keep up with it all. But here are a few posts that caught my eye this week:

Ancestral Breezes wrote about her Favorite Tweets from the NGS 2012 Conference. Check this out to see the highlights from the speaker presentations and a few funnies.

Diane Haddad of the Genealogy Insider wrote about the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act of 1862. In this post she gives a good overview of the history of the Homestead Act and the resources you can find and use today to help you understand the process your ancestors might have gone through at the time and to help you find your ancestors' actual records!

One post that I know has been very popular and very necessary is Using OneNote to keep up with Those Ancestors by Caroline Pointer of 4YourFamilyStory.com blog. She created a video that takes you step by step through the process of creating research reports in your OneNote software and even offers her readers a downloadable template you can use for your own research!

Laura from The Last Leaf On This Branch wrote about Passing the Test - the DNA Test that is. Although her 23andMe Relative Finder results are not in yet, she was able to view her health results and found some interesting surprises.

There is a new player on the field in the game of genealogy software products. It's called Geungle and it made headlines at the NGS conference in Cincinnati last week. Susan at Nolichucy Roots volunteered herself as a beta tester and is excited about the prospects of this cloud based system being designed by Pentandra.

If you come across a blog or blog post you found interesting and would like to share please let me know via emailor in a comment below.

Follow Friday - Jan 6 2012

Today is Follow Friday where I post some blogs I've read and found interesting. Some are new to me this week. Check them out!

The Keough Corner - Tessa has started participating in the Motivation Monday meme in which each blogger posts their goals on the first Monday of the month and reports back on their progress for the previous month. She has some inspiring expectations for data entry, organization, and working smarter, not harder!

Cousin Linda - Linda is fairly new to blogging and is starting with stories about the house she bought, the cemetery next door, and the church. She also did a 31 day genealogy challenge for the month of December.

Corn and Cotton - Stephanie has been very active in the genealogy blogging and twitter community and has been rallying up other bloggers to find a genea-buddy and set some goals! If you'd like to join in the fun, check out her Motivation Monday post.

Denise's Genealogy Journal - Denise is very excited about the 1940 census being released and offers her readers a preview of it here.

A Look Over the Mending Wall - join Vincent as he stumbles through the archival process - start to finish - of a single collection involving estates and probate packets (and some financial account records) from the Maine Historical Society Research Center in Portland, Maine.

I have really enjoyed reading everyone's 2012 genealogy goals posts! Some genealogists are even pairing up with genea-buddies to help motivate them along the way and to offer them support. These were some of my favorites posts:

Denise Levenick's The Family Curator
Amy Coffin's The We Tree Blog
Elyse's Genealogy Blog
Stephanie's Corn and Cotton: My Family's Story
Terri O'Connell's Finding Our Ancestors
Laura's The Last Leaf On This Branch
Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings

Follow Friday - October 7, 2011

I've been very slack in participating in the Follow Friday meme, mostly because I really just don't get the chance to 1) read many genealogy blogs and 2) write on my own blog; but as I was driving in to work today I thought of some sites I had read and stuff I had read about in the past couple of weeks that had an impact on my research or piqued my general genealogy interest and I thought I would share with my readers.

Journey Through the Hallowed Ground

First of all, I followed along with blogger Liz Tapley of My Tapley Tree during her trip Through the Hallowed Ground, a 180-mile traverse of scenic highway through history and time from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Frederick County, Maryland. Liz is a big Civil War buff and this trip was an opportunity for her to see all the places where significant battles and events took place; there was also some Colonial period history mixed in there as well. I was totally jealous I did not get to go along, but felt like I was there through her words and pictures.

Indirect Evidence


If you want to know what all the hype is about Indirect Evidence, then check out some of the these blog posts: From Michael Hait's Planting the Seeds Blog, My First Encounter with Indirect Evidence; Claudia Breland's In Which I First Encounter Indirect Evidence; and Harold Henderson's post on Archives.com Indirect Evidence to the Rescue. My own take home from all of this is that a document should not be discounted or thrown out just because it does not explicitly state that someone was a direct relationship to someone else.

Family Tree Maker 2012 and TreeSync


Back in August I started reading Randy Seaver's posts here and here about Family Tree Maker 2012 and its new TreeSync feature (These were posts about his experience syncing with the Beta version). Click here to start reading about his experience with the released version). Tamura Jones also kept on top of the news with his posts on What's New in Family Tree Maker 2012? FTM's Beta Experience,  and TreeSync's Limitations, I learned that Russ Worthington was blogging on the Family Tree Maker User Blog and found some interesting posts there on how to use FTM 2012 and how to access new features.

Direct Lineage Reports


In her post No Lineage Charts on Family Tree Maker 2012? Heather Wilkinson Rojo presented a direct lineage report that she used to be able to create in FTM 2006, but has been unable to create in later versions of FTM. She stressed the importance of this report when filing applications to lineage societies like Mayflower, DAR, or Colonial Dames which require a report of each generation, BMD data and spouse data (along with spouse BMD data). The closest available reports in both FTM and similar genealogy software are outline reports, however they include sibling data which is not required for lineage societies. Russ Worthington offered a way to do this with FTM which entails creating a new database, deleting the siblings, then creating the Outline Descendant Report. Midge Frazel offered a similar suggestion for using Rootsmagic and their Direct Descendant Report.

This was enough to keep me busy and entertained. I will look forward to reading all the posts about how people will find their way around FTM 2012 and the new TreeSync feature. There is also a lot of discussion about how to manage trees online, but that's in Google+ and can't exactly be shared here. You have to be in certain "circles" to be privy to that information!

Photo Credits:
1. Photo of ff from ibevymay
2. Photo of Liz Tapley from her blog, My Tapley Tree

Follow Friday

I came across Michael's Daily Genealogy Transcription blog after I re-subscribed to the Transitional Genealogists Forum mailing list and he posted a link to his blog.  He posts various examples of handwriting signatures and asks that his readers write a comment with a best guess of what the name says. His site is very popular with 159 followers and anywhere from 5 to 10 comments a day! Check it out! 

Follow Friday

Here are some new and interesting blogs I came across this week:

CeCe left a comment on last week's Follow Friday post I did to let me know that she was also a multiple blogger! It seems there are more and more of us coming out of the woodwork each day. Anyways, thanks to her comment, I clicked over to see what her blogs were all about. I was VERY excited to see that she was a fellow genetic genealogist. Her blog "Your Genetic Genealogist" discusses the basics of taking a DNA test, how to interpret the results, and her own personal experiences with using DNA testing to further her Proctor family research. This is a great blog for both DNA newbies and amateurs alike. (Oh and by the way, she is a moderator for the ISOGG DNA Newbie List). In her other blog "My Tangled Vine," she hopes to do what many of us strive to do: share success stories of genealogical puzzles solved, chronicle research endeavors and tell the stories of her ancestors. This blog is just getting its feet wet, so be sure to check it out and give her great geneablogging welcome hello!

Follow Friday

I haven't done much blog reading this week, however I did find some really interesting blogs to read and follow this week. Here's some blogs I was introduced to this week and added to my reader:

Leslie Ann has two very neat blogs - One blog called Ancestors Live Here chronicles her and her husband's ancestors' lives. She has everything from family photos, stories, obituaries and newspaper clippings to name a few; Another very interesting blog is all about those Lost Family Treasures that she comes across at flea markets and antique stores. She anxiously posts pictures of things she finds with hopes of reconnecting the items with their owners.

Another great blog I found that has a good mix of family stories, memes and technology related posts is the Bayside Blog. I especially liked Missy's post on using the Gist software to manage contacts. I even started following her on Twitter!

I'm really delighted to see more people out there who have more than one blog. I was beginning to feel like I was a blog hog or something because I had two blogs. I was also thinking that people were getting my two blogs confused - of course it was easy to do because they had similar names, but I've fixed that problem now. Anyways, most of the people I came across this week also have multiple blogs. I think that's great! Sometimes we just have way too much information.

Meet Kristin Williams - She has two blogs - One is called My Cleages and Reeds. She follows her paternal line in this blog. What I like most about this blog are the picture collages she includes in her posts, like her Then and Now Wordless Wednesday post from July 14, 2010. Her other blog is called Finding Eliza and focuses on her research on Eliza Williams Allen of Montgomery, Alabama. Her goal is to eventually write a book about her ancestor. I would like to read her blog and follow her endeavors in achieving this goal. I hope to learn a lot about collecting, compiling, and telling family stories through reading her blogs.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Endangered Durham blog that Taneya sent to me last week. This site is truly amazing. The author publishes old pictures of various houses and buildings around Durham, North Carolina (where I currently live) and then publishes new photos of the buildings as they exist today. Many of these places I drive by on a daily basis. It's amazing to see their transformations. What a great find!