Other Voices of Genealogy

My writing style tends to be a casual, slightly irreverent style of prose. Sometimes I come off a lot more of a “smart aleck” then I intend. My fear is that when I do this that I might be casting an irreverent light on the subject of genealogy and family history, and that is certainly not my intention. I love this hobby of mine, and I have a great admiration for anyone who puts his time and effort into finding and recording his family's history.

With that in mind, I wanted to share with you some of the other voices of genealogy that you might find interesting or useful. This is by no means an all-inclusive list. These are just some of the blog posts that caught my attention, and I thought were worth passing on to you, dear reader.

Juliana Smith writes the “24/7 Family History Circle” blog. She was browsing other genealogy blogs and came across the Carnival of Genealogy's Christmas Wish edition. Her own wish had to do with organizing and the post of December 9th, http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=2108#more-2108, is definitely worth checking out if organizing is on the top of your to do list for 2008.

Randy Seaver of “Genea-musings” made it really easy for me to find his wonderful post about suggestions for beginning genealogists, when he put together his own Best of 2007 posts. His May 22 posting, “12 Suggestions for Researchers” (http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2007/05/12-suggestions-for-researchers.html) acts both as good advice for the beginning researcher, as well as a nice reminder for those of us who have been working on our family genealogies longer. 

Denise Olsen, of the blog “Family Matters” is light years ahead of me in matters of technology. She had a very interesting post on using Skype for research matters in her December 20 posting, “Keep in Touch with Skype” http://moultriecreek.us/family/2007/12/20/keep-in-touch-with-skype/. She promises more posts on this in the New Year, and this is definitely a subject I want to know more about! 

If you haven't heard about “Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace” by Elizabeth Shown Mills, which was published in 2007, you should definitely read the review done by Miriam Midkiff on her “AnceStories” blog. You can read her review at, http://ancestories1.blogspot.com/2007/12/evidence-explained-book-review.html. 

Becky Wiseman at “Kinexxions” found a discrepancy in dates for her fifth great-grandfather, Bela Goodrich. Unfortunately, her plight is not uncommon, and you can read all about it in her June 19 posting, “Gravestones don't lie? When did Bela die?” http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2007/06/gravestones-dont-lie-when-did-bela-die.html. So Becky, which dates have you decided on using? 

Terry Thornton of “Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi,” put together a list of his favorite posts for 2007. The winner hands down for me was the one titled, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! Let's not talk about this …” Terry, born and bred in Mississippi, talks about his family's participation in the Civil War. It highlights one of the most tragic chapters in United States history, as well as spotlighting what a personal tragedy it was for those involved. You may think you understand the Southern view, but things are not always so clear. This is a subject close to my heart, because while all my direct ancestors fought on the Northern side of the conflict, they had cousins, nephews and uncles living in Virginia, some who fought for the confederacy and some who were Unionists. You can read this very well-written and thought-provoking piece at http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/2007/08/shhhhhhhhhhhhh-lets-not-talk-about-this.html. 

These are just some of the other “voices” of genealogy that you might want to read. 

Until Next Time — Happy Ancestral Digging! 

Note this post first published online, January 2, 2008, at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 2 January 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder