Ruth’s Recommendations

This week’s favourite blog posts cover a couple of weeks because I was away at the NGS conference in Las Vegas and then took several days in Salt Lake City to do some research.

Abroad in the yard had a post called “Century Chest’ time capsule reveals pristine 100 year-old artefacts and messages for the future.” This was a very interesting post about a time capsule found in an Oklahoma church.

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings has a post called “Changes to the Evidence Analysis Process Map in GPS.” Looks like there are some changes coming and I am sure more discussion.

This is not exactly a blog post but a friend sent me this link to a newspaper report from The West Australian Regional Newspapers called “Genealogist finally has the answers.” Now I just wish the Family History Society of Rockingham and Districts recorded this presentation so I could know how it turned out.

The Mocavo Genealogy Blog has a post called “Tracking Your Genealogy Library: iBookshelf” this is about an app in iTunes to help you keep track of your genealogical library.

Chris Paton of the British GENES blog is “amused by a small archival storm over in the United States” in the post called “Cataloguing conundrums!” He also has several other posts. The first is “TNA adds digitised naturalisation and denization papers.” These records cover the period from 1801 to 1871 and can be searched at The National Archives in Kew.

“Irish wills calendars 1858-1922 now online” is an announcement from the National Archives of Ireland and the addition of this record group to their genealogy platform. It is free to search and view.

“WW1 Lantern slides found in Belfast church loft” is about the discovery of 77 lantern slides depicting Belfast soldiers from the First World War. If your ancestor is on one of the 77 slides then what a treasure.

The last of the British GENES posts is “Who Do You Think You Are Live 2014 – change of dates” they have changed the dates for the show next year starting on Thursday 20th February and going to Saturday 22nd February.

The Irish Genealogy News Blog has several posts of interest. The first is “Follow the decade of 100 years ago on Century Ireland.” This post looks at a new website that tells the story of “Ireland’s most tumultuous years: 1912-1923.” It is worth a look.

The next post is “17th-century Ireland revealed in 300-year-old-maps” This is about the Down Survey website and the maps from 1656 to 1658.

The last post is “1926 Irish census moves closer to release?” What I don’t like is the question mark at the end. There may be problems with the private members bill to amend the wording of the Statistics Act.

I am very pleased it is a long weekend in Canada because that means that the Canadian Lib Genie (aka Elise) got to post on Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees. Her post is called “Baptism record that appears to solve mystery of Samuel de Champlain’s birth arrives in Canada.” This post makes me want to take a trip to Ottawa to the Museum of Civilization to view the document and others that mark the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s trip up the Ottawa River to the Ottawa Valley.

What were your favourite blog posts?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

Genealogy Insider – Genealogy News Corral

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved 

Here are my favourite blog posts from the last week.

There were three posts from British GENES this week. The first is “Old TNA catalogue to be switched off.” Tomorrow the TNA will start their new Discovery catalogue.

The other two posts were called “Democratising or Privileging archive conference in Dundee” and “Democratising or Privileging archives conference – day 2.” These are two very interesting posts about what he learned at the conference. There were quite a few Canadian archives presenting as well. There is an interesting take of Library and Archives Canada. Library and Archives Canada has lost its reputation on the international stage not to mention at home.

Irish Genealogy News has an interesting post called “Exploring Irish Identity – a free online course.” This looks really interesting and it starts on May 27th.

Congratulations FamilySearch and their dedicated volunteer indexers. You have reached the one billionth indexed record. “Thanks a Billion.”

Genealogy’s Star has an interesting post called “Is Genealogy History or is All History Genealogy?” Every genealogist needs to know about the history of the area where their ancestors lived and the era in which their ancestors lived. It can help answer a lot of questions.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

Genealogy Insider – Genealogy News Corral

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from the last few weeks.

Irish Genealogy News has a post called “Anglican Record Project releases trio of registers.” This is about the latest release from the Church of Ireland digitization project.

John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections has a new update on the happenings at Library and Archives Canada with a post entitled “Service at LAC.” You can only view items at LAC but you might not even be able to view them there with the poor upkeep of the microfilm readers.

The National Archives of England blog has a post written by Audrey Collins called “Censuses compared.” Audrey compares census records from the US and Britain.

Kerry Scott of the Clue Wagon blog has been at it again with another wonderful post called “Dead People, Dead People, Dead People, SQUIRREL!” Oh I so agree Kerry.

The Brit-Ish Heritage Forum has a posted called “London Huguenot Record Treasures at FamilySearch” which provides a long list of items at FamilySearch to help you with your Huguenot research.

The British GENES blog has a post called “Irish Family History Event video” which has a video from the first ever Irish Family History Event held in Dublin over the St. Patrick’s Day Festival. There are several other small videos available.

What were your favourite blog posts from the last few weeks?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from recent weeks.

Tonia’s Roots Family History and Genealogy blog had a post called “11 Must-Have Apps for Genealogy.” I think the title speaks for itself. You get a good range of apps for Apple devices.

There were a few from the British GENES blog. The first is “IWM sound archive goes online.” This is a great resource for those researching First World War soldiers. I can’t wait to listen to some from the hero’s who were at Gallipoli as that is where one of my Great Grand Uncle’s fought.

“Griffith’s Valuation Revision Books for Northern Ireland” is a post where he talks about the latest release from PRONI. The revision books will be a great resource for those researching ancestors in Northern Ireland. Looks like he got more snow that we did this March.

The last one is “Western Front Association announces pension cards look-up service.” This is fantastic news. Pension records can provide you with some useful information.

The Anglo-Celtic Connections blog has a post called “Canadian Newspapers at Newspapers.com” John Reid tells us about what he learned about Canadian newspapers at RootsTech last month.

Dear Myrtle’s blog had a post entitled “Ol’Myrt’s #RootsTech 2013 Experience” where she provides links to the interviews she conducted at the conference.

The National Library of Ireland blog has an intriguing post entitled “Death in a Sweetshop.” This is about a death that happened in their mother’s sweetshop and the person who died was a famous artist. The story of how they found out more is fascinating. It helps that they work at the National Library.

The Irish Genealogy News blog had a post called “Lots of goodies coming soon from FindMyPast Ireland.” Here she examines the upcoming releases from Findmypast Ireland and what the future may hold. Irish researchers are about to get more information online.

The TCE Blog had a post called “Historical Maps of Toronto: Q&A with Nathan Ng.” This is about the online database of historic Toronto maps. It is very interesting how this came about.

What were your favourite blog posts?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from the last week.

The Genealogy’s Star blog has a post called “Spending Money on Genealogy” which looks at different few points on how we spend money on our passion. The post makes you think about what you spend in the pursuit of ancestors.

The Family Recorder has a post called “Webinar try-out” where she is the first to do a presentation using the webinar format at The National Archives. I am looking forward to watching the webinars. I have been an avid listener to the podcasts that The National Archives produce and seeing the speaker as well as the slides will be a wonderful bonus.

The Irish Genealogy News blog has a post entitled “More Belfast, Dublin & Sligo papers added to BNA.” This is very good news for those doing Irish research. Newspapers are a wonderful resource.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from the last few weeks.

John Grenham had an interesting post called “Make sure they don’t die.” He looks at the importance of preserving family stories and how one family who had several siblings who emigrated are trying to find out about the two that were left behind.

If you have ancestors from Saskatchewan who were Catholic then the FamilySearch Blog has a post you might find interesting. “Announcing Saskatchewan Catholic Church Records on Family Search” promotes the release of these records on FamilySearch. The dates range from 1846 to 1957. The post provides you with a little background information of the Catholic Church in Saskatchewan.

The genealogyinsider blog has a post called “Time-Saving Tips for Busy Genealogists.” We are all busy genealogists and any advice is helpful.

Claire Santry of the Irish Genealogy News blog has two interesting posts. The first is “On the record: last month’s Genealogy Hedge School” where she talks about the HistoryIreland Hedge School that is held at the National Library of Ireland. Their topic was “Genealogy: Who Does It Think It Is?” She provides a link so you can listen to the discussion between several well-known Irish genealogists.

The other post is “1908 Dublin City Electoral Roll released.” This is the latest release from the Dublin City Library and Archives which is available on their free database.

Chris Paton of the British GENES blog also had two interesting posts. The first is “Coming soon – Lord Morpeth’s Testimonial Roll.” Chris was able to beta test this database and has a few links to explanations of what Lord Viscount Morpeth’s Testimonial Roll actually is all about.

The second of Chris’ posts is “Discover Your Ancestors – new bookazine and magazine.” Here he talks about the release of the second annual bookazine called “Discover Your Ancestors.” The demand was so great that they are now launching an online magazine as well as the bookazine. You can find out more by reading Chris’ post.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

The British GENES blog has post called “Richard III press conference now online.” If you haven’t seen the story on the news then you can catch up here. There is a Canadian link to this story.

Claire Santry of Irish Genealogy News has a post called “Ancestry to release Lord Morpeth’s Roll next month.” This document dates from 1841 and has about 275,000 names on it.

Dear Myrtle has a post called “2013 Docu-Challenge #1: English Parish Register Entry.” The challenge is to transcribe and analyze a historical document and share it with others in the comments section on Dear Myrtle’s blog. The document is the same for everyone. She provides links and instructions on the process. This also uses the Evidentia software. If you haven’t tried it then this is a way to see what it is all about.

The ActiveHistory.ca blog has a post called “More Canadian History, More Better” which looks at how the Canadian government is promoting Canadian history. It isn’t all good news.

ActiveHistory.ca has another post entitled “Podcast: “Beyond Orange and Green: Toronto’s Irish, 1870-1914” by William Jenkins.” This podcast is based on William Jenkins book “Between Raid and Rebellion: The Irish in Buffalo and Toronto, 1867-1916.”

The Organize your Family History blog has a post called “Exploring Evernote for Genealogy.” In this post she looks at how you can use Evernote for research logs.

The In-Depth Genealogist has announced that the February 2013 issue of Going In-Depth is now available in their post “Going In-Depth has arrived!”

The We Came From blog has issued a challenge by creating a History Hop with a post called “Welcome to “The History Hop.” Every Friday you create a post that relates to any kind of history and share the link on the We Came From blog.

The Irish Story blog has a very interesting post called “Waterford Parted from the Sea’ – The Irish in Newfoundland.” The people of Newfoundland have come from very specific places in Ireland. Have you seen the commercials for tourism in Newfoundland and Labrador? Sometimes you have to look twice to make sure it is for Newfoundland and Labrador and not Ireland.

Randy Seaver at the Genea-Musings blog has a post called “What are the Must-Have Resources for Genealogists?” This post promotes another post called “88 Must Have Resources for the Online Genealogist” where Genea-Musings was listed as a must have resource for online genealogists. Congratulations Randy!

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

John Grenham had to articles this week that I found interesting. The first is entitled “The Weird and Wacky World of Civil Registration” where he talks about the price increase for certificates in the Republic of Ireland.

The second is called “Evidence, evidence, evidence.” Here he talks about a post from Dick Eastman’s blog that referred to an article from a Limerick newspaper. John dug a little deeper and came up with the truth. A story we all need to remember.

The Findmypast.ie blog has a post titled “Starring Tom Lefroy as Mr. Darcy” which looks at the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Tom Lefroy was connected to Jane Austen and it is thought that he was the inspiration for Mr. Darcy.

The British GENES blog has a post called “Scottish Legal History Research Guide” which leads us to a free guide relating to Scottish Legal History. If you are researching anything to do with the legal system in Scotland this is a good reference.

Dear Myrtle’s post called “Feedback: FamilySearch’s Potential” looks at a post written by James Tanner called “The Potential of FamilySearch.org.” Dear Myrtle discusses issues with the search function on the FamilySearch website. If you search for a name in a particular place you need to keep Dear Myrtle’s post in mind and look for the images that are not indexed and can be browsed.

The Military Research UK blog has a post called “New Update to The Great War 100 App – The Victoria Cross.” This post caught my attention because it references Valour Road in Winnipeg where three men who lived on this street were awarded the Victoria Cross. This Great War app looks interesting.

The last recommendation this week is for the Genealogy Canada blog where Elizabeth has a post called “WorldCat and FamilySearch Announce Partnership.” This partnership will be great for researchers.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

John Reid of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog had two posts of interest this week. The first is called “Meeting Challenges of the Future: From Reflection to Action.” This post is about a document of the same name posted on Library and Archives Canada’s website.

The other post at Anglo-Celtic Connections is “James Turk on the future of archives and archivists in Canada.” John attended a panel discussion at the Eastern Ontario Chapter Archives Association of Ontario and the topic was “What We Have Lost: What We Stand to Lose The Future of Archives and Archivists in Canada.” This post is John’s synopsis of the discussion.

Dear Myrtle’s Genealogy Blog had a post called “The pinball approach to genealogical research.” This post is an examination of what Dear Myrtle learned during the recent Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy study week. She attended the “Advanced Genealogical Methods” course with Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG. Her experiences and revelations are something that we all need to think about and incorporate into our own research.

The National Archives blog had a post called “It’s not the document, it’s the information” by Audrey Collins. This post relates well to Dear Myrtle’s post. Audrey examines several record groups that are available at TNA and has links to research guides to help you understand the records.

The last post for this week is from the NLI Blog where Ciara Kerrigan of Research Services at the National Library of Ireland has written a post called “Family History Research.” She talks about the people from around the world who visit the library to find out more about their Irish ancestors and introduces us to a new user guide that is available online. The guide is called “Family History Research: Sources at the National Library of Ireland.” This is available to download and I would suggest everyone add it to their digital library for Irish research.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Chris Paton of British GENES has a post called “Scotsman Digital Archive relaunched” which is really good news. This is a wonderful resource for Scottish researchers and their subscription rates are reasonable.

FamilySearch blog had three posts this week. The first was “New Research Lessons Added to FamilySearch.org – January 2013.” FamilySearch has a fantastic selection of online classes that you can watch on a cold or wet afternoon.

The next post was called “Moving County Boundaries” which looks at the changing landscape of the county borders and how important it is to know about these changes when you are doing your research.

The last post was part three of James Tanner’s series on photograph restoration. The post is called “What do I Need to Restore Damaged Photos? Part Three.”

The Irish Genealogy News blog had lots of news to share with Irish researchers this past week. The first post is called “TNA beginners: Start Here” which looks at the new section on the National Archives of England website. It explains what information is available at the archives and how to navigate the new website.

Then there was “Monaghan parish records: hope springs eternal” which looks at the new rumblings about the release of these parish registers on the Irish Genealogy database.

The next post is called “Irish Civil Registration records live on FindMyPast.ie” FindMyPast has digitized the Irish Civil Registration indexes. You can find out the names of the other people on the page to see if you can figure out the name of the spouse. This is wonderful news.

The last post is “Handy map of Irish Civil Registration boundaries.” This map is a great tool for Irish researchers.

There was some sad news from the Genealogy Canada blog. It seems that because of the addition of higher rental fees, changes in policy and new fee charges at Library and Archives Canada that Gene-O-Rama is cancelled for this year.

Last and certainly not least The Ancestry Insider and their post called “FamilySearch.org Incremental Improvements.” This posts looks at the improvements to the search criteria at FamilySearch and some other developments.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog

©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved