Genealogy Reviews Online

Genea-Blogger on Google Books Video

I got up early this morning to browse my favorite genealogy blogs and while drinking some strong coffee, all of a sudden I clicked on a link and there was a familiar face talking about how she uses Google Books.  I was reading Randy Seaver's Gena-Musings, and the familiar face I was watching was Miriam at AnceStories.  This is a very well done video where Miriam shows she's as articulate talking as she is in her writing.  I'm also impressed at how good of job the Google folks did in producing this video - it puts all of us genealogy types in a good light...well most of us...some of us will never be in a good light - speaking personally of course.  Here's a link to the Video.

I want to make sure I properly credit everyone who broke this cool story.  I first read the story on Randy's blog, but he saw it on Becky's Kinexxions.  Becky has a screen shot of Miriam in the video.  There are probably others, but these are the two I saw first.

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Researching Paternal and Maternal Lines

I had the day off yesterday, and since I couldn't think of anything to blog about, I spend most of my time trying to update the records in my genealogy software (Family Tree Maker).  I've been very undisciplined about these updates -  in fact I don't really use it very often...but that's another story. 

I noticed something as I was going through all of the information I've acquired over the last five or six years.  With a couple of exceptions, I've sadly neglected most of the maternal lines of my ancestors.  When I have looked at the women, it was usually only for one generation then I'd go back to the male side.  For example, I've done a fair amount of research on one of my maternal great-grandmothers - Jennie Cone.  I've spent a lot of time looking at Jennie because I have photos of her with my mother (when she was a child) and wanted to learn more about her family.  After finding Jennie's parents, I ended up focusing on her paternal line (the Cone family).  I have scores of surnames where you can follow them back hundreds of years, but all I have is the name of the wife for most of these men and little else.  Half of the genetic make-up that eventually turned into me came from these spouses, but I've made little effort to learn about them.  I have had my mtDNA tested, but it's really meaningless because I know so little about most of the women involved - in fact, I really don't know some of the surnames involved that WOULD make this DNA test meaningful.

I'm sure more disciplined genealogists out there cover everyone, but I haven't and I'm not sure why.  It could be I'm lazy because it's easier to track a single surname then one that changes with every marriage.  Maybe there's also a little sexism involved because I identify more with the paternal than the maternal sides of my family tree -  my guess is it's probably a little of both.  At least in my family, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the women have held everything together.  There are repeated instances where fathers have died young, or ran off looking for their fortunes (never returning), and the mothers had to raise and support large families.  I'm sure there are some great and heroic stories I've missed because I'm always focused on the paternal side.  Has anyone else experienced what I've described?

I'm making a second addendum to my new years resolutions for genealogy: I will focus time on the women in my family tree that I know nothing about.

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Comment Approval

Because I keep getting spam comments from a group of so called celebrity blogs all on the same post, I've decided I will now approve each comment.  I didn't want to do this, but have been forced into it.  I apologize for any inconvenience, but I've noticed most genea-bloggers do the same thing.

Your IPOD Video as a Digital Recorder - A Genealogy Gem

I was listening to Lisa's Genealogy Gems Podcast (Episode 22) the other day and learned about one of the coolest little gadgets I've seen in a while - an attachment that turns your IPOD video into a digital recorder.  I'm somewhat of a technology nut.  Whenever some new geeky thing comes out, I have a tendency to buy it.  I bought a Toyota Highlander Hybrid when they first came out a couple of years ago because the technology was so cool.  My computers have all of the latest bells and whistles attached to them.  I just can't help myself sometimes...and I also have an IPOD video (got it when they first came out too).  I paused when I looked at the link to this gadget on Lisa's site.  I knew if I clicked it, I would buy it - and probably something else too.  Amazon always tempts me by saying "people who bought this, also bought this," and I usually end up buying it.  So I took a deep breath and clicked.

So, What's New in the Genealogy World?

I haven't posted much the last few weeks...haven't been online much either.  We've been very busy with school starting, and my son's soccer season getting underway, I just can't get any time behind the keyboard.  I've also been suffering from a bit of writers block - can't seem to think of anything interesting to write about.  Same old stuff seems to be going on...World Vital Records has released a bunch of new databases...Footnote.com has added another 2 million documents to their site.  Kinda boring lately...it was so exciting a few moths ago when FamilySearch was partnering with everyone who has a website.  Lets see...what else...Hey, I'm about 4 posts away from 300...that's pretty cool.  I probably shouldn't count this one because I'm just rambling about nothing, but what the heck...I'm greedy.  I see that Becky Wiseman has given me a Nice Blog Award...Thanks Becky!  For the last few weeks my readership has been taking a nose dive.  This is not surprising since I haven't been posting...then all of a sudden yesterday it went way up.  After investigating, I discovered Becky's link gave me a big bump.  Yesterday must have been a boring day if so many people had nothing better to do than click on my link on Becky's blog.   I love the new Genealogue Challenges, however by the time I read them someone has already solved the problem...i guess I should stop reading the comments first.   That's about it...can't think of anything else going on...hopefully I can beat this writer's block...if only something interesting or maybe even controversial would happen and inspire me...but that's probably wishful thinking...Oh well...guess it's time to go to work...maybe I'll have something interesting to write about tonight....So...anything new happen lately?

Better Google Searches and Much More

When I start a new line of family research I usually don't go to a genealogy site - I go to Google.  The problem with this strategy is unless you know exactly what you are looking for, you waste a lot of time weeding through many irrelevant hits.  While using Google to find a more efficient way of using Google, I found a blog called dumb little man with a subtitle of "tips for life" that provided the answer.  This blog is anything but little.  It has a subscriber count of over 65,000, and has hundreds of articles that gives you tips on just about anything you can think of.  The article that caught my eye was written by guest author Leo Babuata and titled  20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches. 

Geni.com

Find Your Family Name In Historical Documents

OK, I know I wasn't very excited about the Geni.com press release yesterday.  I'm still not a big fan of family trees and genealogy websites becoming social networking gathering spots, but I tried out Geni.com last night and found it very addictive.  It starts with a little box for you to enter your name then up pops two boxes for your parents...and so on.  There are arrows pointing to the to the left or right from each box where clicking allows you to enter brothers, sisters, or spouses.  The interface is the best I've ever seen for a family tree.  I got caught up in clicking the up arrow...I just kept going and going!  I couldn't stop!  Pretty soon I was back about 5 generations...adding brothers, sisters, spouses...everyone.  I didn't add any other info  about my ancestors - I was just having fun playing with the tree. 

Genealogy Resolution

For genealogists, a good New Years resolution is to make sure you have sources to back up your family history.  This article, by James Beidler of the Lebanon Daily News, shows what happens when poorly sourced facts are passed down to subsequent generations.

Searching for Private LaGrotteria - YourHub.com

I thought I'd pass on this fascinating article titled "Searching for Private Lagrotteria" by Gerard Spicer of Lakewood, Colorado writing in YourHub.com.  It consists of two parts...click the link above for part one, then at the end of part one you will be able to click for the second installment.  I think it is very well written and kind of resembles "The Search for Annie More" that I talked about in my review of Roots Television.

My Great Big Family

I had a first time experience recently.  A person who visited my blog recommended a website for me to write about.  This is really exciting...I actually have a reader!  To keep my reader happy, I decided to visit the site (My Great Big Family) and see what I could do.  I was actually surprised that my reader's recommendation was a web hosting service specifically geared to genealogy.  About 4 years ago I was looking for such a site...but never found one.  I eventually signed up with a web hosting service called APlus.net.  On this hosting service, I created my family history site, but it wasn't easy.  Most web hosting services are geared towards e-commerce.  When I was trying to set up my site on APlus, none of the design templates really fit my needs for a genealogy website.  It was very frustrating.  I ended up making one fit, but as I said, it wasn't easy...and I have never really been able to get it exactly the way I want it.

New Name for MyFamily.com

Ok, as everyone has heard...MyFamily.com Inc. has changed it's name to The Generations Network.  What does this mean?  As far as I can tell - not much.  The press release says they are preparing to relaunch MyFamily.com in 2007 with "an exciting new release of Family Tree Maker, and our plans to make Ancestry.com even more mainstream and indispensable to families around the world. And we’re thrilled to be moving forward as The Generations Network.”  I wonder if everyone else is as excited about it as the company officers are. 

Great Census Resource

If you've been researching your family history using the various census' and think you know all there is to know about this resource - think again.  Both Dick Eastman and Randy Seaver recently mentioned a site in their blogs called www.1930census.com and of course I hit the link to check it out.  What I found was a fairly good guide on how each one of the census collections was conducted.  This is not something I've really paid much attention to - I would just plug in a name and go from there. In reality, though, the context of the census is almost as important as the data itself.  This site helps to provide some of that context.    

Book Review - Dances with Luigi: A Grandson's Search for His Italian Roots by Paul Paolicelli

Dances with Luigi by Paul Paolicelli, (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 2000) is a very good read, and I had to share it with you.  This is old news for the hard core Italian genealogy types who discovered Paolicelli a long time ago, but as usual, I discovered him later then most.  I was taken with this book because, at least on the surface, it mirrors my own search for my grandfather's family in Southern Italy.  I say on the surface, because Paolicelli did what most people only dream of doing - the only way I can categorize it is "extreme" genealogy.  Paolicelli was a successful television journalist who had heard family stories about his Italian heritage all of his life.  However, as all genealogy buffs experience, gaps in the family story got his curiosity going.

24/7 Family History Circle

Here you have a blog reviewing another blog…it kind of sounds like one of those movies or plays where actors play the parts of actors. I want to say up front that I like  24/7 Family History Circle which is produced by Ancestry.com.  I guess I like it because it’s free – well, it’s free if you are not a subscriber to Ancestry. I already get access to most of the articles by way of my World Annual Deluxe subscription that costs $347.40. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad thing because most of these articles are very good. It seems, however, that 24/7 Family History Circle is more of a marketing effort to boost subscriptions rather then to provide a free service or unique content.

Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter

I’m an Internet junkie – especially when it comes to genealogy.  However, I’m  probably one of the few people who had never heard of Dick Eastman until a couple of months ago. I was searching on a subject in Google and got a hit that took me to Ancestry.com. It was there that I found a bunch of old newsletters of his and started reading. Then I discovered that not only was this newsletter on Ancestry.com, but that Eastman produces daily articles that can be delivered right to your inbox. Now I’m hooked.