Perhaps I'm the last one to learn of this, but Terry Snyder now has an RSS feed available for her blog Desktop Genealogist. Her blog also has a new URL.
I've been checking her "old" blog "manually" and noticed the site had changed a bit but there had not been any posts for a few days, which is unusual for Terry ;-)
Anyway, I clicked on the "blogs" tab and discovered that Terry had posted something today and that she now has a "new" blog. With archives and an RSS feed, and she doesn't even have to wait on her editor to approve her posts! Congratulations, Terry. I know she's happy about the change, and so am I.
And why does this matter, you ask? Well, because I really like Terry's blog. Her wit and humor is refreshing and she writes good stuff. She puts her own unique twist on the topic of genealogy and family history research.
Terry also has another blog that I've been following: The Thacker Chronicles which went online in April. Terry calls this her "not ready for primetime (aka the local newspaper) blog" and is documenting her exploration of a branch of the family that left her "a little off balance" when she discovered something that took her by surprise. I applaud Terry for tackling this touchy subject and for airing her thoughts publicly. I'm looking forward to reading about her discoveries. Good luck in that search, Terry.
Showing posts with label Recommended Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommended Reading. Show all posts
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Recommended Reading - But Now I'm Found
Periodically I check Chris Dunham's Genealogy Blog Finder What's New page to see if there are any new blogs that look interesting to me.
This morning, I was impressed with But Now I'm Found, subtitled "Genealogy Blog in Black and White" written by jenuinely. Not that it really matters, but she also happens to be a Hoosier; a native of Gary, Indiana.
The blog is new for her, started in January this year, but her interest in and enthusiasm for genealogy goes back ten years. Her posts are well-written and provide insight into the unique problems associated with researching African-American slave ancestors.
Her website Say My Name chronicles the story of some of her family and the places where they lived. I haven't read all the pages on her site, yet, but plan to return to finish reading them all. It is very interesting and, for me, provides a view into yet another aspect of this world of ours.
This morning, I was impressed with But Now I'm Found, subtitled "Genealogy Blog in Black and White" written by jenuinely. Not that it really matters, but she also happens to be a Hoosier; a native of Gary, Indiana.
The blog is new for her, started in January this year, but her interest in and enthusiasm for genealogy goes back ten years. Her posts are well-written and provide insight into the unique problems associated with researching African-American slave ancestors.
Her website Say My Name chronicles the story of some of her family and the places where they lived. I haven't read all the pages on her site, yet, but plan to return to finish reading them all. It is very interesting and, for me, provides a view into yet another aspect of this world of ours.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Roundup of the News - Recommended Reading
It's been a bit mind-boggling trying to keep up with all of the announcements of new databases, new partnerships, and new collaborations that have been released this month.
At the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe Randy Seaver posted a very good roundup of the announcements in Research News for October 2007 so I'm not going to waste my time in trying to duplicate it here.
Kimberly Powell has the latest on What's Next for Ancestry.com? with some interesting information on their acquisition by Spectrum, future investments, the Internet Biographical Collection, Family Tree Maker 2008, Genealogy.com and RootsWeb.com, plans for Ancestry Member Trees and other Family Trees, and plans for the future.
You might also want to go on over to Creative Gene, Year Two to see what Jasia has to say about blogging for two years! Congratulations, Jasia!
At the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe Randy Seaver posted a very good roundup of the announcements in Research News for October 2007 so I'm not going to waste my time in trying to duplicate it here.
Kimberly Powell has the latest on What's Next for Ancestry.com? with some interesting information on their acquisition by Spectrum, future investments, the Internet Biographical Collection, Family Tree Maker 2008, Genealogy.com and RootsWeb.com, plans for Ancestry Member Trees and other Family Trees, and plans for the future.
You might also want to go on over to Creative Gene, Year Two to see what Jasia has to say about blogging for two years! Congratulations, Jasia!
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Recommended Reading - Craig's Legal Analysis of the IBC
As he promised, Craig Manson has started posting his legal analysis regarding the recent fiasco with the release of the "Internet Biographical Database" by The Generations Network (Ancestry.com). The first in the series of posts is Did Ancestry Violate the Copyright Law? . . . Prologue. Subtitled Part I of A Legal Analysis of the Late Controversy, Craig provides us with the "facts" as they are known as well as a discussion of basic legal concepts necessary for understanding his legal analysis.
As an active member of the bar of the State of California and professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Craig is eminently qualified to speak on these issues.
I'm looking forward to his future posts on this subject. For additional reading you might also want to review his posts on Copyright issues.
As an active member of the bar of the State of California and professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Craig is eminently qualified to speak on these issues.
I'm looking forward to his future posts on this subject. For additional reading you might also want to review his posts on Copyright issues.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
More on the Issues - Recommended Reading
The ramifications of the recent fiasco with Ancestry and the "Internet Biographical Collection" are yet to be felt. The issues are far more complex than any of us ever dreamed of and will probably never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. There will always be controversy over what was done and, as I said before, we all need to Take a deep breath and relax...
That said, you may want to read the following posts:
Dick Eastman with To Cache or Not to Cache: The Definitive Answer Though I'm not sure his is the "Definitive Answer" he does discuss the issues of Copyright and the Field vs. Google federal case on the legality of caching.
Miriam Midkiff on More on the Issue of the Internet Biographical Collection discusses the evolving world of genealogy and what that means to all of us as well as what our responsibilities are. "Our role, then, is to act responsibly by using good methodology in our research, citing our sources; by respecting genealogy websites' terms and conditions; and by learning the copyright laws that protect our own work."
Randy Seaver has posted MyFamily Inc. Terms and Conditions stating that "It would be useful for everyone to read the Terms and Conditions..." I would add, not just for the Generations Network websites, but it is up to the user to read the terms and conditions of ANY website before we use it or contribute to it. And not to just read the legalese but to UNDERSTAND it completely.
That said, you may want to read the following posts:
Dick Eastman with To Cache or Not to Cache: The Definitive Answer Though I'm not sure his is the "Definitive Answer" he does discuss the issues of Copyright and the Field vs. Google federal case on the legality of caching.
Miriam Midkiff on More on the Issue of the Internet Biographical Collection discusses the evolving world of genealogy and what that means to all of us as well as what our responsibilities are. "Our role, then, is to act responsibly by using good methodology in our research, citing our sources; by respecting genealogy websites' terms and conditions; and by learning the copyright laws that protect our own work."
Randy Seaver has posted MyFamily Inc. Terms and Conditions stating that "It would be useful for everyone to read the Terms and Conditions..." I would add, not just for the Generations Network websites, but it is up to the user to read the terms and conditions of ANY website before we use it or contribute to it. And not to just read the legalese but to UNDERSTAND it completely.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Recommended Reading - fM's photo biography
footnoteMaven has a wonderful post titled "Finding That Two Hundreth Edwardian Woman In A White Dress" in which she takes a photograph (of people not related to her I might add) and creates a mini-biography of each person pictured, using only census records! It's absolutely amazing the amount of information she gleaned from the census records.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Why Blog Genealogy? Why not?
There must have been something in the air this past Wednesday. . . First, I read Ken Spangler's post "Should I Rethink This?" where Ken was basically doubting himself regarding blogging but by the end of his post he had convinced himself to continue. His concern was with the number of posts he's made and the frequency of posting. - - Quality is better than Quantity.
Then I headed on over to Tim Agazio's place and read "Blogging for Bucks - Genealogy Style" where he discusses some ideas for making money with your blog, gives some lessons he's learned and provides some links to other blogs that might help with that task. - - This is not something that I am choosing to do at this time but I'm not going to hold it against anyone else who goes that route.
Then a stop at Creative Gene where Jasia had posted "A Dilemma of a Different Sort" where she'd like to do a series of posts of a rather 'delicate' nature relating to genealogy. Her dilemma arises from the fact that after several previous posts of a 'delicate' nature were sent to readers via email they were rejected by the reader's ISPs and then her readership subsequently declined. So, does she post with some degree of self-censorship in place or does she go ahead and post the articles knowing that some readers might be offended or quit reading her blog altogether. - - I left my thoughts in a comment, along with a few other people.
Janice Brown mentioned in a comment on Jasia's post that she had experienced a drop in readership after posting an article about outhouses and included a variety of words necessary to the story. An experience similar to Jasia's that lead to a decline in readership. This prompted her to write a follow-up post titled "Mentioning the Unmentionable: Naughty Words for Bloggers" where she wonders if filtering software should be of concern to bloggers.
Later in the day, Miriam Midkiff wrote "What motivates us?" which was in response to the posts by Tim and Jasia. - - A thought provoking post in itself and she asks "Why do you blog your genealogy? Why do you read about others' research?"
There are probably as many reasons for blogging your genealogy as there are genea-bloggers.
When I started this blog nearly seven months ago (January 12th 2007) my focus was to present the genealogy and history of the families that I am researching, and, hopefully, to reach out to others who are interested in the same families. I wasn't sure if anyone else would be interested in what I had to say, but how would I know if I didn't try? My goals haven't changed though I throw in a few posts about websites I've found, a few tips, a few thoughts and participate in the Carnival of Genealogy, but the majority of posts are still about my families.
I thought long and hard before actually starting the blog and had been 'lurking' on other genea-blogs, trying to see what was being done and how the information was being presented. I already had a website but was frustrated by the amount of time it took to put stuff on the site. I learned just enough html and css to make me dangerous. I thought the blog platform was a good way to present the information that I had gathered as well as document new research and that it wouldn't take too much effort! Well, it does take some time and effort, but not nearly the amount required of a 'normal' static website.
Other benefits gained from blogging never crossed my mind at that time:
Then I headed on over to Tim Agazio's place and read "Blogging for Bucks - Genealogy Style" where he discusses some ideas for making money with your blog, gives some lessons he's learned and provides some links to other blogs that might help with that task. - - This is not something that I am choosing to do at this time but I'm not going to hold it against anyone else who goes that route.
Then a stop at Creative Gene where Jasia had posted "A Dilemma of a Different Sort" where she'd like to do a series of posts of a rather 'delicate' nature relating to genealogy. Her dilemma arises from the fact that after several previous posts of a 'delicate' nature were sent to readers via email they were rejected by the reader's ISPs and then her readership subsequently declined. So, does she post with some degree of self-censorship in place or does she go ahead and post the articles knowing that some readers might be offended or quit reading her blog altogether. - - I left my thoughts in a comment, along with a few other people.
Janice Brown mentioned in a comment on Jasia's post that she had experienced a drop in readership after posting an article about outhouses and included a variety of words necessary to the story. An experience similar to Jasia's that lead to a decline in readership. This prompted her to write a follow-up post titled "Mentioning the Unmentionable: Naughty Words for Bloggers" where she wonders if filtering software should be of concern to bloggers.
Later in the day, Miriam Midkiff wrote "What motivates us?" which was in response to the posts by Tim and Jasia. - - A thought provoking post in itself and she asks "Why do you blog your genealogy? Why do you read about others' research?"
There are probably as many reasons for blogging your genealogy as there are genea-bloggers.
When I started this blog nearly seven months ago (January 12th 2007) my focus was to present the genealogy and history of the families that I am researching, and, hopefully, to reach out to others who are interested in the same families. I wasn't sure if anyone else would be interested in what I had to say, but how would I know if I didn't try? My goals haven't changed though I throw in a few posts about websites I've found, a few tips, a few thoughts and participate in the Carnival of Genealogy, but the majority of posts are still about my families.
I thought long and hard before actually starting the blog and had been 'lurking' on other genea-blogs, trying to see what was being done and how the information was being presented. I already had a website but was frustrated by the amount of time it took to put stuff on the site. I learned just enough html and css to make me dangerous. I thought the blog platform was a good way to present the information that I had gathered as well as document new research and that it wouldn't take too much effort! Well, it does take some time and effort, but not nearly the amount required of a 'normal' static website.
Other benefits gained from blogging never crossed my mind at that time:
- A sense of community, particularly from participating in the Carnival of Genealogy.
- That good feeling that wells up inside when someone leaves a comment saying they enjoyed the post or that it helped them in some way.
- Getting helpful tips and ideas from other bloggers.
- Search engines seem to index Blog posts much quicker than a normal website, which means your information gets 'out there' faster.
- You might be able to make some money from blogging.
- It can help you focus on your research. Writing about what you've found forces you to look more closely at the details and you might see things that were previously overlooked.
- It might help you get more organized. Now, where is that document I was going to quote?
Is there a downside to blogging?
- It can be addictive, much the same way as genealogy. Can you handle more than one addiction?
- It may take away some of the time you would be using for research.
- I'm sure there are other reasons not to blog, but I can't think of any more right now ;-)
Would I advise someone to start a blog? Sure. In fact I'll be giving a presentation on blogging for the Genealogical Society of Whitley County in January or February. I'm hoping to get a few other researchers to contribute to my other blog Whitley County Kinexxions that I started last February.
If you are thinking of starting a blog or maybe thinking of quitting blogging, you may want to read these recent articles first:- "Why Blog?" By Abhijit Nadgouda
- "Almost two years now and what have I learned from blogging?" by Pelf Nyok
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Recommended Reading - The Elder Storytelling Place
I'm not sure how or even when I came across The Elder Storytelling Place (clicking through on links from one site to the next will do that to you) but it is a blog where people can contribute stories from their lives. It was created in April 2007 by Ronni Bennett who blogs about "what it's really like to get older" at Time Goes By. I think I came across her website last year when I was investigating whether or not I could really retire this year, so that's probably how I also found the blog. . .
About The Elder Storytelling Place Ronni says:
Some of these stories will make you laugh, some will make you sad, but all are precious and give a glimpse of times past. Well worth a few minutes a day.
About The Elder Storytelling Place Ronni says:
"Sad, poignant, happy or funny, not infrequently our stories contain lessons we have learned and the wisdom we've gathered on our long journey through life and that should not be lost - which is what led to this blog. I would like it to become a place where readers sit a spell and "listen" to other people's stories. And then tell their own. Who knows? Maybe in time we'll include audio and even video. Most bloggers have many readers who don't keep blogs and so this is a place for you non-bloggers too to spin your tales for others to read. Everyone's stories are welcome - except that you should be at least 50 years old."
Some of these stories will make you laugh, some will make you sad, but all are precious and give a glimpse of times past. Well worth a few minutes a day.