Ruth’s Recommendations

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

The Family Recorder had a post called “You know you’re a genealogist when…” It is very true and a few new ones were added in the comments section.

Irish Genealogy News has a post called “Cheaper digital options now available from Eneclann.” This is great news. I wonder how long it will take to have all their titles added to the digital catalogue.

The Ancestry Insider has a post called “Serendipity at the BYU Conference” which is a wonderful story of the magic of serendipity in genealogy. I wish something like that would happen to me sometimes.

The We Tree Genealogy Blog has a post called “1000!” Congratulations Amy on your 1000th post! I loved her look back at some of her posts.

Gena’s Genealogy blog has a post called “100 Social History Websites” What a plethora of websites to visit and add to my bookmarks!

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from the past two weeks.

The National Archives blog had three posts that were interesting. The first is called “Distress in the cotton districts 1863” which looks at the effects of the American Civil War on the cotton industry in North East England. This is of particular interest to me because I have family from Cheshire and Lancashire who were involved in the cotton industry. This post looks at the civil unrest caused by the shortage of raw cotton.

The next is “Is that all there is?” In this post the National Archives explain what they are doing to fix what they call “hopeless Wikipedia articles,” these are articles with little or no information.

The last post is “Olympics – PE kits and tuck boxes” it looks at a website called The Olympic Record. Here you can download records from the National Archives relating to the Olympics.

The Family Recorder blog has a post called “Those Places Thursday – The State of the Poor” which looks at a “useful source for family and local history” called “The State of the Poor, or An History of the Labouring Classes in England, from the Conquest to the Present Period; in which are particularly considered, Their Domestic Economy, with respect to their Diet, Dress, Fuel and Habitation; And the Various Plans which, from time to time, have been Proposed and Adopted, for the Relief of the Poor” by Sir Frederick Morton Eden. This document was published in 1797. This resource sounds very intriguing.

The Irish Genealogy News blog has a post called “Tipperary & Limerick witness statements released” which looks at the Tipperary and Limerick Witness Statements taken from the Bureau of Military History (1913-1931). These are personal accounts of the movement for Independence in Ireland.

What were your favourite blog posts in the last two 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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

The University of Glasgow Library blog has a post called “Matriculation Index images on Flickr.” This is a set of images from the ledger of information on graduating students in the 19th century. The person who entered the names into the ledger got creative with the letters for each section.

Chris Paton of the British GENES blog has a post called “New book due soon – Discover Scottish Land Records.” This guide to Scottish land records will be a must have for anyone’s library. Congratulations on the new book Chris! I can’t wait to get my copy.

The FamilySearch blog has a post called “Capture Your Knowledge in the Research Wiki.” This post helps you to add your own knowledge to the Research Wiki at FamilySearch. The Wiki Support team is available to answer your questions. What information can you add to the FamilySearch Research Wiki?

The National Library of Ireland blog has a post called “Conserving our Newspapers” which takes you through the process of bringing an old newspaper back to life. There are pictures to show you the process and a before and after shot of a newspaper that has been revived.

Dick Eastman had a post this week called “Barking Up the Wrong Tree.” This is something we have all done and a lesson for new genealogists to learn before they make the same mistake.

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

©2012 – 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 a post this week called “Historic Canadian photographs from TNA” TNA has put about 1,000 pictures relating to Canada on their Flickr page.

Chris Paton of British GENES blog has a post called “Why paper archives won’t disappear soon” which links to a video by the BBC program Click called “Why tech can’t break the hold of paper.” You can watch this video from North America.

Lisa Alzo of the Accidental Genealogist has a series called “Sojourn in Slovakia: The Sequel” where she shares the stories of her recent research trip to Slovakia. These posts make me think it is time I went back to the home country and had a research adventure.

Marian Pierre-Louis of Marian’s Roots & Rambles had a though provoking post this week called “Lesson Learned: Be Careful Making Assumptions.”

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Eneclann had a post called “Jonathan Swift and genealogy” this week. This is in honour of the fifth Swift Satire Festival in Trim Ireland. Helen Moss takes a look at “what Jonathan Swift might have made of genealogy and discusses his own much talked about family history.” It makes for very interesting reading.

The Auckland City Libraries “Kintalk Whānau Kōrero: family history blog” has a post called “PapersPast just keeps the heritage newspapers coming!” It seems that the digitization of newspapers in New Zealand has had another boost with the release of “The New Zealand Herald (1863-1884) and the last batch of “The Auckland Star (1927-1945).” It is great that some National Libraries are taking on the challenge of digitizing their newspaper holdings. My wish would be that Library and Archives Canada would do the same thing.

The National Archives UK blog had two posts this week. The first is “Planning a Visit” which provides tips for planning a research trip to almost any repository. The next is “A view from the counter” which was written by Sally Hughes who works in the book shop at the Archives. I love to visit bookshops in archives, museums and galleries. They carry interesting and very different items than other shops.

The Irish Story blog has a post called “The Irish Civil War – A brief overview” which provides a succinct overview of the conflict. This is important for any Irish researcher to understand even if your people left before the civil war happened.

British GENES has a post entitled “The tragedy of modern Irish genealogy” which looks at a post written for the Irish Times Irish Roots blog by John Grenham. I like Chris Paton’s suggestion to have them meet in Bewley’s to hash out their differences. As Chris said “there’s no better place to wake up and smell the coffee.”

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

British GENES blog has two posts of interest this week. The first is “ScotlandsPeople reduces wills and testaments charge.” This is great news for those of us with ancestors from Scotland. Look for your Scottish lady ancestors as well and don’t forget to check under their maiden and married surnames.

The other post is called “GRO Northern Ireland to set up genealogy records site.” This is more good news for those with ancestors from Northern Ireland. Let’s hope the project is completed sooner rather than later.

I love Kerry Scott’s blog posts. She has been absent lately because life happens. She answers her email questions in a post called “In Which I Answer Your Email. Yes, Yours.” Kerry does it again with this very funny post. Considering how much has been going on in Kerry’s life lately I am surprised she found time to write the post but glad she did. Get well soon Kerry!

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Irish Genealogy News had two interesting posts this past week. The first is “Images of Belfast burial records now available.” There are about 360,000 records for Belfast City Cemetery; Dundonald Cemetery; and Roselawn Cemetery.

The second is “Ill-conceived” merger attracts more criticism” which looks at the proposal to merge the National Archives of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland.

The 16th of June is Bloomsday in Dublin. There are celebrations and events relating to James Joyce’s book “Ulysses.” The National Library of Ireland blog has a post called “Joyce Manuscripts Online – Beta but Beautiful.” I haven’t had a chance to go in and look at them yet. It took me three months but I read “Ulysses” and am very glad I did. It was a challenging but wonderful experience.

Anglo-Celtic Connections has a post called “Blame, or credit, the ancestors” which looks at “Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses.” You need to read the post to find out more. It is an interesting theory and I can see instances of it in my own family history.

Since the 1000 days of remembrance of the War of 1812 began this week there is an interesting post from ActiveHistory.ca called “Podcast: “Whose War Was It, Anyway?” A Roundtable Discussion on the War of 1812.” If you are stuck inside with the heat, humidity and smog this might be a way of spending some of your time.

I enjoy the National Archives of England blog and this week it didn’t disappoint. They had a post called “A challenge and a solution” where they look at the photographic projects they are working on in the Collection Care studio. This is what an archives blog needs to be. They don’t only tell you stories regarding their collections; they also walk you through the process of conservancy and sorting their collections. This blog truly helps you understand what an archive does and the importance of supporting all that they do to preserve our history.

Marian’s Roots & Rambles has a post this week that says “Seriously, Not Everything is Online.” Everyone needs to remember that you cannot find everything online. I heard a statistic that said less than 1% of the information genealogists access is actually found online. The internet is a wonderful tool but not the only stop in your research process.

Find My Scottish Ancestors is starting a “(semi) regular” series on unusual words that they have come across during their research. The first post is “Old Scots Words – Afaldly or Afauldly.” I am looking forward to more of these posts.

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

The National Archives UK blog had a post called “Dastardly Digital Dilemmas: 3) Telling Stories” which looks at the fact that the digital age can mean no written notes on documents. These written notes sometimes provide more information than just the document themselves.

The Family History Writing blog had a post called “The Record Keeper.” Anyone who does family history would be considered the family record keeper. This is a story about one such person and their adventures in preserving family records.

Brenda Dougall Merriman’s blog has a post this week called “The Power of the Record” where she is lamenting the lack of support from genealogy societies and groups in Canada to the decimation of Library and Archives Canada.

Canada is not the only country whose national institutions are in crisis. Ireland is having a similar problem. The Irish Genealogy News blog posted a press release from the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland called “APGI: Ireland’s cultural institutions are in crisis.”

The one glimmer of good news in Ireland was that Eneclann and a partner have taken over the genealogy services at the National Archives of Ireland and National Library of Ireland.

I would like to congratulation the other bloggers who were mentioned in the Family Tree Magazine “Around the World in 40 Blogs” article, in particular Family History Across the Seas and British & Irish Genealogy. These are two blogs that I follow and enjoy reading.

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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

There is some sad news in the genealogy world in Ireland. The Genealogy News blog reports that the free genealogy service at the National Archives of Ireland has been cancelled. This was a wonderful service and it is sad to see it go. It seems the National Archives and National Library in Ireland are in as much trouble as Library and Archives Canada.

The National Archives UK blog has a post called “How a conservator helped uncover Jubilee records” which is a fascinating post.

Genea-Musings had two posts this week that were interesting called “Creating Research Notes in RootsMagic 5 – Post 1 and Post 2.” I use RootsMagic so these posts have been bookmarked so that I can go through them and learn more. I love his easy to follow step by step process.

GeneaPress has a post called “Genealogy Jamboree Streamed Sessions Announced.” I have already signed up for a few this weekend. There is limited space so if you find something interesting sign up now.

Marian’s Roots and Rambles blog has a thought-provoking post entitled “Sharing and Genealogy.” There is a discussion in the comments section of this 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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

It has been a very busy few weeks. So this is two weeks of my favourite blog posts.

There has been a lot of news lately about the government’s view of Canadian history and the cut backs at Library and Archives Canada. The ActiveHistory.ca blog has two posts that relate to this topic and make for interesting reading. “Seizing Canada’s Past: Politics and the Reinvention of Canadian History” and “The Smokescreen of “Modernization” at Library and Archives Canada.”

On the topic of Irish research there is a post at the findmypast.ie blog called “The Petty Sessions order books” which looks at their value to the researcher. The other is Irish Genealogy News with a post called “Database updates its list of registers” which looks at IrishGenealogy.ie and their quiet updates.

The FamilySearch blog has two posts regarding new features on their website. They are “New FamilySearch Feature – IGI” and “New FamilySearch Feature – My Source Box.”

The National Archives Blog has updated the status of the swan family on the grounds of the Archives with a post called “Very fine swans indeed.” They also have a post called “Information management through music” which looks at usability in records management.

On Marian’s Roots and Rambles there is a post called “Just the Hint of a Smile” where she shares her experiences in collecting the oral history of her community.

The Family Recorder is providing a bit of history to go along with the Olympic torch relay in her posts called “Olympic torch route.” She has a new post for each day of the relay.

The In-Depth Genealogist has a post called “Genealogical Journaling” and it provides some good insights into using journaling to help with your 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

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved