Ruth’s Recommendations

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Free Genealogy Resources had a very good post this past week entitled “Tuesday’s Tip: Act Like You’re Moving.” When you move you usually go through everything and sort it and during this process you may discover a few surprises you had forgotten about. They suggest doing this with your genealogy files to see what treasures you have that may have been forgotten.

Family Search’s Tech Tips had three posts that were of interest this past week.

James Tanner wrote “Online Geographic Resources for Genealogists” where he describes using the Family History Library Catalog to search for records relating to a place. Other websites are examined to see how they can help you with the geography side of genealogy.

He also wrote “A Further Look at Restoring Damaged Photographs” where he takes you through the process of restoring an old photograph.

Denise Barrett Olson wrote “Digital Publishing: The Living Book of the Dead” where she looks at family histories that have already been written and incorporating them into the updated family history that you want to write. She looks at the importance of respecting the work that has previously been done while working with modern research methods and today’s technology. You do not have to write a book there are many other ways to document your family’s story.

This week the Ancestry Insider looked at the Family History Library Catalog with a post called “The FHLC is No More.” The Family History Library Catalog has been renamed “the FamilySearch Catalog.” They have brought the new catalog up to date with the old one. They will eventually be updating the new catalog nightly. There are problems with how the search returns are viewed in the new catalog. Read this post to find out more.

Kerry Scott of Clue Wagon wrote a piece called “In Which I Say “Geni” and “Crap,” But Not In The Way You Think” which gives an important perspective into the recent changes at Geni.com. She looks at the real issues which are that not everything needs to go on the internet, you need to be very careful about what you put the internet and most importantly you need to be careful about using what you find on the internet. No Kerry, you are not the only one who gets hives at the thought of a Great Big World Tree.

Are there any postings in the last week that you think need to be on this list? Let me know in the comments below.

Ruth’s Recommendations

2 Comments / By Ruth Blair

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Kerry Scott of Clue Wagon wrote “In Which I Am Accosted By A Skeleton At 3 a.m.” where a cold and the desire not to disturb her husband’s sleep led to an all nighter and a discovery that may answer a few questions after a little more research.

Melissa Donovan of Writing Forward has a post entitled “9 Journal Writing Tools and Resources” where she shares online resources for journaling. The focus is on creativity and writing.

The Ancestry Insider has a post called “Coming Soon to a FamilySearch.org Near You.” They talk about the upcoming features of familysearch.org that were discussed at the 2011 BYU Family History Conference.

The Genealogy Insider blog is associated with Family Tree Magazine in the United States. They have a post entitled “Your Advice for Organizing Family Archives” which provides a list of reader’s suggestions on organizing your archival material.

The NLI Blog has a post written by Bean An Phoist called “Wanted: One strong, healthy young Man.” It takes a look at some of the newspapers to be found in the National Library of Ireland, the exciting find and acquisition of previously unknown issues of the “Nenagh News” and the fun to be had reading advertisements found in old newspapers.

The GenWriter, Julie Cahill Tarr, has a post this week called “4 Resources for Writing Your Family History” where she looks at three publications and a video to help you with the process.

Are there any postings in the last week that you think need to be on this list? Let me know in the comments below.

Ruth’s Recommendations

2 Comments / By Ruth Blair

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Abigail Rieley wrote a post on the NLI blog entitled “Dancing Angels and Devilish Microfilm” where she describes with great feeling her memories of time spent in the National Library of Ireland. She looks at how it has changed over the years but in many ways still remains the same.

The Professional Descendant blog had a useful posting called “Using LibraryThing for Genealogy” where she goes through the process of putting her large library of genealogy books in the LibraryThing database.

Cassmob of Family History Across the Seas has a post called “The Irish population haemorrhage: mapping 160 years of data” where she describes using the new National Centre for Geocompuation’s Online Atlas Portal which contains 160 years of data on the population of Ireland. One section pertains to the famine comparing census years 1841 and 1851.

She also posted “JSTOR @ NLA: finding the historical context for family history.” This post describes the resource JSTOR and things she has found in JSTOR. The only problem is you need a library card from the National Library of Australia and to get that you need to live in Australia. Check out a major library in your area to see if they provide access to this wonderful resource.

Carole Riley of Genealogy in New South Wales had an interesting post called “How to search for probate files at the State Records NSW.” She describes how to research probate records and where to find the information.

Julie Cahill Tarr of the Genwriter blog has a post called “Find your Research Mojo” which provides motivators to help you rediscover your passion for genealogy.

Chris Paton of Scottish GENES had a post called “Overseas ScotlandsPeople promotion – free credits.” If you live overseas and are not already registered with the site then you are eligible for 30 free credits.

Are there any postings in the last week that you think need to be on this list? Let me know in the comments below.