Last week, Klompendanser wrote about genealogy books, a wonderful topic.
This week, I'm going to look at good genealogical reads that are born digital.... so, pretty much blogs, with a few Facebook groups thrown in for good measure.
When I work with people new to genealogy, I divide websites into four categories: actual records, finding aids (indexes that lead to records with actual names), referrals (sites that direct to records but don't feature individual names), and connections (to distant relatives or to people with local or other specialized {for example, military history} knowledge). Additionally, there are also websites primarily for methodology (how-to, tips and tricks, and so on) and just plain old good stories.
Most of the blogs I'm going to talk about fall into one or both of these last three categories {connections, methodology, stories} ~ blogs are best suited to those types of information.
No pretty pictures this week, but lots of link-y goodness after the orange snickerdoodle....
So, to start.... the top three genealogy blogs I think everyone should read ;-)
1. The Legal Genealogist
2. The Genetic Genealogist
The Legal Genealogist and The Genetic Genealogist focus on what you would guess from their titles, but they also are both well-written and talk about other interesting genealogical news.
3. The Ancestry blog ~ yeah, they are the big corporate conglomerate. And this Hoosier Daddy rant is spot on about them. But there's often good information about changes to the Ancestry website and using Ancestry in the blog.
My other top choices....
A great (and still in process) story: Hoosier Daddy. This one should be read in choronological order ~ start here and work your way up the sidebar. Yeah, I've pushed this one before ~ but so worth the read ;-)
Vita Brevis: the blog for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. A mix of stories, methodology, and resource links. I love the NEHGS (their librarians saved me from many a beginner mistake when I first started doing family history research.....), so I was predisposed to likng this blog when they started it ;-)
British GENES ~ if you do any research in the UK or Ireland, well worth reading.
Lots of others out there. Some of the others in my Feedly (RSS) feed:
23andme, another genetic testing company. Like Ancestry's blog, focused on their products ~ but with good genetic genealogy information mixed in.
DNAeXplained ~ more on genetic and traditional genealogy
Geneamusings ~ a grab bag with lots of news and information.
RootDig and Genealogy Tip of the Day are done by the same genealogist. He also does the Genealogy Transcriber ~ a good way to improve reading ability for older handwriting.
Geneabloggers ~ links to other blogs, tips/prompts for writing, and general news. Same author does Hack Genealogy, with a focus on technology for genealogists. He's also trying a year of do over genealogy ~ taking time to step back and re-visit/re-work earlier results; see the associated Facebook group for more details.
Dear Myrtle ~ the grande olde dame of genealogy blogging. There's also a Dear Myrtle group at Facebook.
Dick Eastman's blog ~ with Dear Myrtle, the other big name ;-) Parts of the blog are by subscription, but the free stuff is good.
The Genealogy Guys ~ a blog in support of their podcast (and I'm not even going to try to cover podcasts in this diary....).
Olive Tree ~ another general blog; I've really liked the subseries on the author's top ten genealogy mysteries.
Ancestoring ~ a professional genealogist shares tips and stories.
AnceStories~ another well done blog with a variety of information and stories.
Jollett Etc. ~ she started with one family..... but we all know how that goes, right?
Irish Genealogy News
Granite in my Blood ~ general information plus lots on gravestones/cemeteries
No Story Too Small~ lots of good stories... and encouragement for telling ours.
The National genealogical Society has a blog, too.
Ranging a bit away from blogs, if you have any interest in Jewish genealogy, the group Tracing the Tribe at Facebook can be a valuable resource.
Other Facebook groups that I've found helpful; their names tend to be nicely descriptive ;-) One note: because many of these groups are quite large, the admins tend to keep the discussion quite focused and allow very little side chit chat.
Technology for Genealogists
The Organized Genealogist
For the sub-genre of genetic genealogy, there's a group for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy and another one for GedMatch users.
And..... if you want to watch and not read, there are videos at YouTube. In addition to many of the Who Do You Think You Are UK episodes, I've enjoyed some/many of the videos on these 'channels':
FTDNA
Ancestry
The Guild of One Name Studies
Genetic Genealogy Ireland
And, finally....one bulletin board. If you have ancestors in Scotland, the forum at TalkingScot is an essential stop. Methodology, local knowledge, good stories, help with finding and reading old records. I'm guessing other locations/ethnic groups have similar places to go for expert advice but my research has been focused on Scotland recently.
What blogs do you read?
Which ones have been consistently good sources
for information, news, and fun stories?
It gets dark early here in Maine this time of year ~
help me fill the long dark nights with good light reading ;-)