Follow Friday – 3 June 2016

When I run across amazing blog posts or articles, I want to share with my readers. Most of the time the articles I find may not be from just the week of my Follow Friday post, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go “back in time” to read them or perhaps find a new-to-you blog! So without further ado –

Broughton Images has two new posts from this past month (including one celebrating Memorial Day): Just Follow the Flags and Bonham Heritage Day Festival. The photographer truly captures the atmosphere and stirs emotions whether it’s photos of a Veterans Memorial surrounded by flags from each branch of military or Bonham’s courthouse on the square during the annual festival.

Becky Jamison has caught the Trello bug! She has started to use Trello to organize many items pertaining to her genealogy research. So please visit her Grace and Glory website and read what happened when she Brought Hidden Emails to Light.

And if you need something else to “spark” your creativity, visit Amy Johnson Crow’s site and read Creating Family History Videos Easily for Free using Adobe Spark. On top of that article, you’ll also want to read Amy’s suggestions for researching the new Indiana Vital records that Ancestry recently added. You can find that informative article here: Indiana Vital Records on Ancestry: Good & Bad. As I spent some time yesterday going through these records, I know of what Amy speaks!

The other day I had 28 New Ancestor Discoveries on Ancestry. Yesterday it dwindled to six. I knew why after I read Roberta Estes’ article on her DNAeXplained blog: Ancestry Refines New Ancestor Discoveries (NADs). Perhaps her explanation will help you in what has perplexed many researchers.

Do you find it difficult to organize everything you need in order to be more productive at research (whether it is for family history, work/school project, or to run a household)? Diane Haddad at the Genealogy Insider shares some tips with her article The Big Picture: Using Mind Mapping to Organize Research Ideas. See if it helps you!

These are just some of my favorite articles lately! What are you reading?

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Follow Friday – 18 March 2016

In case you missed all the hoopla that resulted from a recent article published in the March edition of the AARP Bulletin (20 Tips to Declutter Your Home), I urge you to go read the article and then the rebuttal from my fellow Buckeye and professional genealogist, Amy Johnson Crowe – Don’t Burn Your Family Letters When You Declutter. Feel free to add your two cents worth – or better yet, write a blog post about it and leave a link in the comments! (I’ve written a few articles about the letters that I have!)

Do you add metadata to your digital photos? I guess the bigger question would be do you know why you should? You know all those boxes/albums full of old family photos that you have? How many times do you think “why didn’t anyone list who, what, why, where, when, and how?” so you wouldn’t be left scratching your head and trying to figure out that information. Metadata serves the same purpose. It gives you the information you need – as well as a source. Did you inherit it from your paternal grandmother? Was it part of a scrapbook from your favorite aunt? Was it a loose photo stuck inside a Bible or letter? You will want to source all of that so in five years when you pull up a photo from the cloud or your hard drive, you aren’t scratching your head trying to put it in the right context. Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist has written a wonderful article about this – Repeat: an image citation how-to. Go read!

Yesterday, I posted a photo of Ellis Island and a link to Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak’s article about Annie Moore. Last night, Megan posted on Facebook that she had found Annie’s relatives! Here is the story – Generation Saga: Relatives of Annie Moore Traced. Fascinating story!

This past week, the story of the Purple Heart found  at a Goodwill store was making the rounds on Facebook. Within 24 hours, a family member had been found! Power of social networking! Here’s just one article about it – Purple Heart Found at Goodwill.

Last but certainly not least, I want to call your attention to a photo/travel blog with excellent photos of landscapes, nature, events, and animals. Recently, Broughton Images spent a day in Dallas photographing the skyline. Go check it out! You can also follow on Facebook.

 

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Follow Friday – My New Followers

I’ve had several people subscribe to my blog lately so I want to show them some love by publicizing their blogs!  I’m also including those who have left comments or “liked” some of my articles.  Most of these are “new to me” blogs, and I bet some of them are new to you also!  Please go check them out!

Porters and Grays and Halls Oh My written by Edith Heilman. I am looking forward to reading this blog because I immediately noticed that her sister was born in Yokohama, Japan – close to where my folks were stationed in the 50s.

Digging Up the Ancients written by Lynda Crackett.  Some of the surnames she’s researching include Crackett, Webb and Henderson. Her most recent posts include History through the Alphabet and things that happened in her family on that day. Please go check out her blog if it is also new to you!

La Mia Familia by Michelle Ann Kratts. Her blog appears to be rather new – begun in May 2012 – and she writes about her Borgatti and Fortuna ancestors.

The Turning of Generations by Michelle Goodrum. Currently, she is organizing all that “stuff” in the Family Home! She provides tips and technical information.

Hidden Genealogy Nuggets written by Jim Sanders. His recent posts include information about Connecticut libraries and military genealogy.

KJN Genealogy – Dead Reckoning written by Kathy Judge Nemaric. Her most recent articles are a series of posts about her Judge ancestors coming to America from Ireland.

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Follow Friday – January 20, 2012

In between the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday, the grandson’s school schedule getting back to normal, starting back to my class schedule on Wednesday, work, normal life, and wanting to reach through the phone to strangle doing my best to keep my cool with a customer service rep for our health spending account, I did manage to get some blog reading accomplished!  My happy dance this week was installing the Google Reader app on my kindle fire so that I have all my genea-blogs in one place!

I want to highlight a few outstanding (in my opinion) genea-blogs that I enjoyed in the past week.

First is Ginger Smith’s To Cite or Not to Cite? That’s not really the question! at Genealogy By Ginger’s Blog. This post was written on January 13 but I had not read it before publishing my Follow Friday post (I apologize, Ginger!)  She discusses footnotes and the mysterious disappearance of said footnotes – even when she tries really hard to include them!

Second, the wonderfully informative (tongue-in-cheek humor) post on The Sound of Music Effect from Donna Pointkouski at What’s Past is Prologue. As only she can, Donna explains the difference between “a true story” and “based on a true story”.

Lorine McGinnis Schulze is much braver than I ever would be in her post, Sharing Memories – Week 3 – Hair! at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. I’ve had some of those “wild” hair-do’s as well!

Many of my fellow genea-bloggers were discussing SOPA and PIPA in the past few days and some blacked out their sites on Wednesday in protest (along with Wikipedia and other well known websites).

If you haven’t read the above posts that I mentioned, go check them out, leave a comment and add them to your “must reads”. And as always check out Randy Seaver’s “Best of . . .” on Sunday.

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Who Do I Turn To

At one time I had tons of genea-blogs that I bookmarked and read every day, but when my daily schedule became too busy, I stopped reading many of them. Not because I didn’t like them, because I did, and many still provided good advice or stories.  I just had to decide which ones were more important and could fit into my schedule.

Those I read on a daily basis include:

Genea-Musings because Randy always has good tips, a little humor thrown in at times, and writes consistently each and every day. I enjoy the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun that he posts each Saturday afternoon and the Best of . . . posts that he writes on Sunday.

Ruth’s Genealogy. It used to be Bluebonnet Country Genealogy but has undergone some changes lately. Please go visit Ruth and see what wonderful renovations she has made!

Kinexxions by Becky Wiseman. She has spent a good deal of time traveling the country, posting about her travels, as well as the research she was able to accomplish during her two (yes, TWO) trips to Salt Lake City in the last year!

Reflections from the Fence by Carol. I started reading this blog after Becky Wiseman posted on her blog about meeting up with Carol and her husband, “Man”, during her first visit to SLC. This couple has spent the better part of the year traveling out west, and Carol has written many posts about “The Trip” and inserted wonderful photos. Almost feels as if you are with them!

Blogs that I try to get to on a semi-monthly basis (a few times a month) include:

Jasia’s Creative Gene blog.

Donna Pointkouski’s What’s Past is Prologue. Donna always inserts her own brand of humor and insight!

Becky Jamison’s Grace and Glory.

footNote Maven’s footnoteMaven. Unfortunately, fM has had some personal issues to deal with for several months and she hasn’t posted as often as I’m sure she wanted to. I’m sure she would say that she’s doing what she wants to be doing now (except for getting over a recent auto accident). Many have sent prayers and good thoughts to fM and Mr. M, and we will continue to do so.

There are several more that I read on a consistent basis but I wanted to highlight those above. However, in my last post, I urged readers to go check out some blogs and posts, and I will be taking my own advice and try to read more frequently.

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Little Bit of This-n-That

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.

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“KreativBlogger” Award!

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!

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A New Award!

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!

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. . . And My Cousin, Becky!

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!

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My Cousin, Julie!

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!

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