I’m taking a break from writing – or thinking – about the series of articles I want to post concerning Death, Dying and Wading into the Legal System. There are other things to write about for the time being.

New Geneablogger stuff – I guess I’m a little behind the times (please read: too busy dealing with personal issues) to realize that Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family (and other great blogs) fame, has been hard at work on the GeneaBloggers blog/website. There’s a wealth of great information and a list of ALL of the Geneabloggers! It’s been around for several months so if you’ve been a little busy or preoccupied (like me!) – go check it out and bookmark it! I think it’s great that each week, new geneablogs are mentioned.

There’s also a new Social Networking site “just for genealogists” – GenealogyWise. Several of the geneabloggers have hopped on the new bandwagon in town – so far not many have abandoned Facebook. Are you on GenealogyWise? I haven’t signed up yet. For the time being, I have way too much on my plate to try to keep up with another network! Perhaps sometime in the future.

Another item I wanted to mention was the recent SoCal Jamboree that was attended by many of the geneabloggers – especially those who live in the Southern California region.  To read more about this event (sounds like it was quite a party!) – head over to Southern California Genealogical Society 40th Annual Jamboree. Then check other geneabloggers postings to read about all the good stuff they learned, the new friends they made, how they met their “idol”, and see all the great photos! I’ve enjoyed the Jamboree vicariously – since I’m not in Southern California and not able to participate in person!

Elyse Doerflinger has pondered why Genealogy Societies Need to Look Torward the Future over at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog. Wonderful content and she’s received tons of comments! Have I mentioned that Elyse is one of our “younger” sisters in the geneablogger world? She has an excellent perspective on so many issues!

Don’t forget to participate in several of the upcoming Carnivals and prompts! If you have writer’s block – or just keep bumping into that genealogical brick wall and need a break – these are wonderful ways to get inspired.

One of my new readers, Sheri, of Grandma’s Stitches awarded me with this KreativBlogger Award!  The rules are fairly simple:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.
4. Link to those sites on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

Since I haven’t seen this pop up on any other blogs yet, I’ll nominate my 7.  They are:

1. Jessica Oswalt of Jessica’s Genejournal. Jessica has tagged me and awarded me with many awards so I want to reciprocate!
2. Terri at The Ties That Bind. This is a new-to-me genealogy blog and I’ve enjoyed reading Terri’s posts!
3. Dorene at Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay. Dorene and I are more than likely very distant cousins through our Connecticut House ancestors!
4. Becky Jamison at Grace and Glory – I enjoy her posts about her parents and her ancestral findings.
5. Ernie Margheim of Ernie’s Journey’s. Ernie is Becky Jamison’s father and has his own blog! Ernie reminds me of my grandfather with some of his stories and the way he writes! Right now Ernie is out of pocket for awhile so he can have surgery and recover. Good thoughts to you, Ernie! (Perhaps Becky can tell her Dad we are all thinking of him!)
6. Suzanne Coleman of Growing up Genealogy. I recently discovered this blog about growing up surrounded by genealogy.
7. Lee Drew of Lineage Keeper. Lee posts the contents of several letters on his blog that are very interesting! This is another blog that is new to me, and I hope will become new to you as well!

I want to thank Sheri for awarding this to me!  I hope you will go visit Sheri and the other nominees and show them some love!

Jessica, at Jessica’s Genejournal has awarded me with the Proximidade Award.  This award is for “These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time, and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming! These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends! They are not interested in prizes or self -aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

This award has been going around for a few days now so I’m not sure I’ll be able to award it to eight others who have not already been given this award – but I’ll try!

So here it goes.  I’m awarding these eight folks:

1. A. Spence of Spence-Lowry Family History
2. Janice Tracy of Attala County Memories
3. Denise Olson of Family Matters
4. Becky Jamison of Grace and Glory
5. Amy Coffin of We Tree
6. Ruth Stephens of Bluebonnet Country Genealogy
7. Chery Kinnick of Nordic Blue
8. Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family Historian

Thank you, Jessica, for this award!

I posted a few days ago about my new found cousin, Julie Cahill Tarr, of GenBlog. Today my other new found cousin, Becky Wiseman of Kinexxions posted her line back to Richard Treat – our common ancestor.

When I first entered the genea-blogging world back in the early spring, little did I realize that some of the people who I met in this wonderful community would turn out to be distant relatives – not to mention blogging friends. On GenBlog, Julie writes that she

. . . started this blog to share my genealogy research with others. Mini-bios of family members is my main focus. However, I also plan to share research challenges and successes, hint and tips I learn along the way, and participate in various carnivals and memes to add variety.

Julie is researching and preserving the past of the Cahill, Miller, McMahon, Rottman, Stoffel, Wach, & Webster families (and over 1,000 other twigs)! She is also the owner of Design Write Communications in Central Illinois.

Becky considers herself a GeneaHistorian and is a native Hoosier (which is great since a lot of my ancestors on my maternal grandparents side lived in Indiana!). She served in the U.S. Navy and also writes Whitley County Kinexxions. Becky’s web site is Kinexxions – Kin Connections. Her blog states:

Kinexxions will be presenting the History and Heritage of my ancestors and their kin, many of whom settled in the Northern Indiana counties of Elkhart, Kosciusko, and Whitley.

Maybe I’m a little biased, especially now that we are “kin”, but I urge you to go check out Julie’s and Becky’s sites and blogs. Two very talented ladies that I’m proud to call my cousins!

Last week, I posted this post about finding new cousins and included my line back to Richard Treat. Yesterday, Julie Cahill Tarr of GenBlog posted Found Cousins that included her line back to our shared ancestor. So if you are curious just how we are related, go check out Julie’s post! Perhaps you too are one of our distant cousins!

Kathryn Lake Hogan, of LOOKING4ANCESTORS offered a Fun Friday challenge that dares us to comment on at least 10 blogs – some favorites and some new.

I’ve been catching up on my genea-blog reading and trying to comment on those I’ve read.  This is my list:

1. footnoteMaven on the post Maria Bash and the Spirit Hoax

2. Creative Gene on the post Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty

3. The Educated Genealogist on the post Practicing What I Preach

4. Heritage Happens on this post It Tickles My Funny Bone (A new blog to me)

5. In My Life on this post The Green Chair (A new blog to me)

6. Life’s Journey on this post Japanese Cherry Trees around the Washington Tidal Basin (A new blog to me)

7. Thomas 2.0 – Genealogy on his list of Surnames. Thomas new blog is new to me although I greatly enjoy reading Destination: Austin Family

8. Walking the Berkshires on this post Halcyon Days

9. Moultrie Creek on this post Land of the Trembling Earth

10. Genealogy Traces on this post Lucy Puckett and Cowart Children Die From 1918 Influenza (New to me blog)

So I urge to you go check out these blogs and the posts and please leave comments where ever you visit!  Care to leave me a comment?

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day with the theme of “Poverty”. Please click the link in order to go to the web site. There will be links to many blogs – not just genealogy. I urge you to go read the posts to see what everyone’s saying!

Each day I check my blog stats to see how many views my blog has had as well as the way folks found me.  I thought it would be interesting to post the statistics for my blog.

Busiest Day: Sep. 2 with 156 hits

People have found me by using these search terms:

• branches in genealogy
• great great aunt
• friday september 5th television
• games geography facebook
• double cousins
• chase thomas noonan
• television
• “brown county, ohio” germans
• first name last name in u.s patterns
• who is my neice? geniology
• charles house son of james house marriag
• christening gown storage box
• freaky friday soundtrack blog
• basketball traits

Posts that have received the most traffic include:

• About Page (114 views)
• Unusual Photos (96 views)
• Surname Page (93 views)

My most active posts include:

• Disecting Obituaries (45 view)
• To Share, Show & Explain – Carnival of Genealogy 54th Edition (39 views)
• The Case of Chase – 33 views

Regular Stats

• 4 pages
• 134 posts
• 23 categories
• 257 tags
• 109 comments

Who Is Referring Me?

• Roots Reading
• Hill Country of Monroe County
• Cow Hampshire
• Creative Gene
• Jessica’s Geneajournal
• Blogfinder
• Adsense
• My genealogy website All My Branches
• Blogger
• Genea-musings

These were in the last day or two.  I’ve received many people finding me through many of my fellow genea-bloggers.

So my question – how do you find me?  Leave me a comment and let me know!  I want to make sure to visit your blog or web site!

Yes, I’ve felt like I’ve taken a long commercial break!  This week started out busy – last week!  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to be coherent enough to form any sort of thoughts to write about.  I will return to posting (have I got a LOT to tell you!) soon.

I do want to thank Randy Seaver – I think he’s my new BFF!  Randy’s Best of the Genea-Blogs Week of August 24th on his blog, Gene-Musings included not one but TWO of my posts from last week! He mentioned my Freaky Friday 4th Edition post from last week and my post on Dissecting Obituaries. As a result, I received many visitors yesterday – over 110! Thank you again, Randy! I hope I can reciprocate the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness!

I also received 4 comments yesterday regarding my previous posting about my great-grandmother’s, nephew, Chase T. Noonan (The Case of Chase). Turns out Chase’s daughter, Ruth, ended up getting married and having a daughter! My new-found cousin contacted me, and I am hoping to correspond more with her soon. She hadn’t seen any of the photos I had, so I want to share everything I have learned with her.

And now back to your regular scheduled programming . . .

For a Picnic!

Bill at West in New England has posted WELCOME TO THE PICNIC!. There are 20 different posts and they all have some very interesting (sometimes amusing) information! I urge you to go check out the stories!