Follow Friday: Begin with "Craft"

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday.  In today's spotlight is Begin with "Craft" a wonderful blog about Valerie's genealogy journey.

Valerie's post on Expanding My Research Comfort Zone: Visiting A County Courthouse really caught my attention.  I haven't had the opportunity to do any research in a county courthouse so I was very interested to read about Valerie's experience.

Among the other interesting posts I read on her blog was the post on Favorite Records: Maps.  It's a great post with links to maps that are helpful to genealogists.

Valerie has a great writing style with matter-of-fact recounting of her efforts to locate ancestors and their documentation.  It's worth your time to stop by her blog and take a few minutes to read a post or two.

Follow Friday: Ancestral Breezes

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday!  Today we're looking at the blog Ancestral Breezes.  Jen's blog focuses on telling the stories of her past, her family and throwing in some education for good measure.  And she does a good job at all of it.

Her post on My first look at the Digital Public Library of America is very informative and provides some good insight on how to search on DPLA, a great resource.

Currently, Jen has a series of posts on fraternal organizations, a subject near and dear to my heart.  Beginning with her post on Curiosity is Allowed to Take Over, she's exploring the importance of fraternal organizations in genealogy.  She remains objective in her posts about fraternal organizations, not learning one way or another in her opinion (though she does mention her great-grandfather belonged to one) and presenting useful and pertinent information when discussing fraternal organizations.  In her second post on these organizations, Jen defines the organizations and in her third post, she talks about organization terminology.

Jen's posts are well written and are written about interesting subjects.  Take a few minutes to drop by Ancestral Breezes and read one (or more!) of Jen's posts.

Follow Friday: Ascending the Stairs

TGIF!  I hope you're as excited about the weekend as I am.  Friday means another edition of Follow Friday and today we're looking at the blog Ascending the Stairs.  Rachelle's blog chronicling her genealogy research is an interesting read and her post Just another clue, that will lead you to another clue and to another one made me smile, nod my head and giggle just a little because what she writes about the tiny morsels of data that genealogists find is true.  Those tiny morsels do keep one "engaged in the hunt, but never satisfies the immense hunger."

And I completely understand finding information that isn't cited.  My maternal grandfather, bless his heart, was a fantastic genealogist.  Careful with his work and tireless in his research efforts, he provided our family with some great information.  Unfortunately none of it is cited and not all the supporting documents were collected so those of us working on this genealogy now are retracing Grandpa's work.

Back to Rachelle's blog, I found her posts to be well written, with very little rambling (genealogists don't ramble, do they? LOL) and interesting post subjects.  I especially like how she periodically posts about her Genealogical Resolutions.  And having never been on a genealogical research trip, Rachelle's posts about Texas on a Wing and a Prayer and Genealogy Trip Planning - Success! really helped to open my eyes about planning versus execution of a research trip.

Take a few minutes today and go check out Rachelle's blog.  It's well worth your time.

Follow Friday: Ancestry Sisters

TGIF and welcome to another edition of Follow Friday.  Today I'm highlighting Ancestry Sisters' blog.  Here's a quick disclaimer: Ancestry Sisters is a professional genealogist's blog.  I have not received any compensation from Ancestry Sisters for this post.  My Follow Friday posts are as unbiased as I can possibly make them and my criteria for Follow Friday is simply that the blog has (fairly) current posts and that I feel the posts are interesting and relevant.

Anyway, I was originally drawn into Ancestry Sisters for their post series on Was Mary Doefour really Anna Myrle Sizer? Help us find new clues and confirm this mystery (it should be noted the series is a re-post of a series of articles written by Rick Baker for the "Peoria Journal Star") but delving into their post history a little further I was excited to discover The Scary Side of Your Family Tree and The Importance of Researching Siblings.  While I don't personally have the need for the information given in The Scary Side of Your Family Tree (at this time), it was an extremely interesting post and, heck, knowledge is power right?  The Importance of Researching Siblings, however, was a different story and provided me yet another avenue I might approach with one of my brick walls.  We're always taught to focus on our direct lines in genealogy but here is an instance where researching non-direct lines assisted Ancestry Sisters in breaking through a brick wall they had.  Looks like I may be going off on a tangent in the next few weeks to see if I can find anything for my brick wall via her siblings.

Take a bit of time today and go check out Ancestry Sisters.  I bet you'll find something there that may be helpful in your research.

Follow Friday: Are My Roots Showing?

It's Friday again, which brings us to another edition of Follow Friday!  Today I'm highlighting Jenny Lanctot's blog, Are My Roots Showing?  Now, I have to admit the original reason I chose to look at Jenny's blog was because of the blog's title.  It's a cute title and I giggled as I pictured a woman looking over her shoulder in a mirror behind her, asking her husband if her roots were showing.  And my reasoning for looking at her blog is a good lesson in marketing.  Give your items an interesting title and it will bring people in.

Jenny's posts are informative and, at times, humorous.  I found her post on FGS 2013 - Helpful Hints for Conferences to be very helpful.  I've not attended a large genealogy conference yet but I hope to in the future and I think her tips will be very helpful.  I thoroughly enjoyed her post Does This Count as an Ephiphany?  Not only did it provide some interesting insight into what could have happened when ancestors disappear during a census year but it also gave a good tip to about checking the pages before and after your ancestor's census listing to see if there are any other possible family members.

I recommend taking a few minutes and checking out Are My Roots Showing?  It'll be well worth your time.

Follow Friday: A Sense of Family

Friday, hooray!  Let's take a look at today's edition of Follow Friday.  A Sense of Family is the blog I've chosen to spotlight today.

Shelly's posts are easy and interesting reads.  She's highlighted her family, conferences she's attended, genealogical writing and tips and tricks that she uses.  Her post on Finding Daughters by Searching on Father's Name: Tuesday Tip was especially interesting.  I hadn't thought of using that technique before; I just love learning new things!

Shelly's post on Visiting the American Cemetery at Normandy also struck a chord with me.  Having decided at the beginning of the year to start volunteering at the National World War I Museum here in KC, my interest in World War I has increased exponentially.  Normandy is a place I would love to see, just because of my interest in World War I.

So take a minute today and check out A Sense of Family, I bet you'll find something that interests you there.

Follow Friday: AK's Genealogy Research

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday.  Today we're looking at AK's Genealogy Research.  Annette's blog was created for the same reason most of the amateur blogs were created - to document her research and progress.  And that's why I love these blogs.  Blogs like AK's Genealogy Research show the ups and downs and successes and mistakes of genealogy research.  A good number of her blog posts make reference to the use of DNA in genealogy research, which I haven't been able to take advantage of yet.  However, I will be marking those posts for later reading.

Annette's writing falls somewhere between conversational and instructional, which I feel makes her posts a very good read.  She had a very interesting post on Service Records of Volunteers, 1784-1811 and another really really good one on Learning Evernote. I've just started using Evernote so finding posts about how others use it is like a goldmine to me.  Take a minute to check out her blog, it's well worth your time!

Follow Friday: A Patient Genealogist

TGIF and welcome to another edition of Follow Friday.  Today we're looking at A Patient Genealogist.  Devon's writing reads like she's simply conversing with another person.  Her post on Is this German Scan Readable for Translation? caught my interest right away.

Of course, there were several other posts of hers that interested me as well, especially the scrapbooking (because I also love scrapbooking!) and her post on Heritage Scrapbooking : Using Mini Trees On Your Layouts just makes me want to try it on my pages.  Alas, I'm lacking the heritage pictures to do it but I'm sure they'll come my way eventually, LOL.

Follow Friday: a3Genealogy

It's Friday again (and who doesn't love that?) so here's another edition of Follow Friday!  Today we're going to look at a3Genealogy.  A brief disclosure: a3Genealogy is a professional genealogy consultant, but in my opinion, Kathleen also writes a great blog post.  Her post on Tips to Researching WWI War Brides focused on a subject I hadn't thought of before, though my darling husband's family did have a war bride in the family (though it was not WWI).  That post may have hooked me, but she has several others that also contain very good information.  As a matter of fact, there are few that I didn't read in their entirety.  Even though her post on Tips for Researching Performers and Showmen doesn't apply to my family (that I know of) I found it worth reading, if for no other reason than it was interesting.

Kathleen's posts are well written and very informative.  I find myself looking forward to her next post to see what wonderful new information she'll impart.  I encourage my blog readers to take a minute and read one of her posts, I'm sure you'll also end up hooked on her blog.

Follow Friday: Ancestoring

Here we are at another edition of Follow Friday.  Today I'm spotlighting Ancestoring, a family history blog written by Michele Simmons Lewis is a professional genealogist who writes a blog geared toward the beginner and intermediate researcher.

As I was cruising thru the plethora of posts on her blog, I ran into one that grabbed my attention.  My grandfather the "Nazi" was a good reminder of why genealogists should not make assumptions.  The story of Michele's grandfather is quite interesting and reminds that, when researching, it's important to look at the history surrounding the time and person you're researching because there may be some facts that would make a difference in your research.

Michele's blog contains information on everything from numbering systems to timelines.  I appreciate that she will occasionally stop and answer questions she receives.  Her post on Questions About Wills and Probate was very helpful (as are many of her other posts).

This is not a blog you will want to rush thru.  There is a LOT of information on Michele's blog and I've had to Pocket it so that I know I need to stop and really read what she has on there.  I appreciate that, while she imparts a lot of information on her blog, she does so in a short and sweet manner.  I tend to get distracted easily so long blog posts tend to lose me part way thru.

Follow Friday: A Southern Sleuth

It's Friday and we all know what that means...Follow Friday!  Today we're looking at A Southern Sleuth, a journey along with Michelle Taggart as she searches for her southern roots.

I don't limit myself to only reading blogs about genealogy that only applies to my genealogical situation.  I read about Croatian genealogy, Jewish genealogy and Southern genealogy to name a few that don't currently apply to my genealogy.  Why?  Because you never know, one day it might apply to my genealogy.  Or, that blogger might have tried something that I didn't think about trying.

What I like best about Michelle's posts are the fact that, in several posts I read, I noticed she was wondering about her ancestor's thoughts or actions, what their lives were like and wishing she knew all their stories.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Gift of Time and Giggling With the Pig and I also remember giggling about the name Piggly Wiggly as a child (and, yes, it still makes me smile today).

Take a few minutes today and go enjoy the stories told by Michelle on her blog.  It'll be well worth your time.

Follow Friday: A Grave Interest

I have been bitten by the blog bug.  Ever since discovering genealogy blogs I've been looking for good ones to follow, so Geneabloggers' blog listing is a genealogical Christmas for me.  I'm slowly making my way through the listing of over 3,000 blogs and finding some really good ones!

I am so excited about this week's Follow Friday subject.  A Grave Interest may have started as a cemetery-based blog but it's not just limited to cemeteries any longer.  Joy Neighbors writes interesting posts about items of note as well.  Her latest post, Bockscar - A Look Back at the Plane That Ended WWII, has a number of interesting facts that I wasn't aware of about this plane.  It's interesting posts like this that lead me to continue reading a blog.

Joy's posts are interesting, well researched and very well written.  I have to admit, one of my favorites (besides the one about Bockscar) would have to be Lincoln's Phantom Train.  That's a very interesting read indeed.

So take a minute and get your read on for A Grave Interest.

Follow Friday: Your Nerdy Best Friend

So I usually try to keep my work life separate from my home life but this week I just couldn't.  This week's Follow Friday focus is simply too. darn. good.

The last few days I've been in attendance at a conference of association staff where I attended a session entitled "It's All About the Bling: Design and Graphic Tools for Better-Looking Everything" taught by one Beth Ziesenis.  I thought the session sounded like an interesting topic: no more plain-text emails, make newsletters pretty, etc.  I was absolutely blown out of the water by Beth's knowledge on this topic.  She made the session interesting and kept her audience engaged.

So I had to stray from my genealogy-focused followings for this week.  Beth's blog, Your Nerdy Best Friend, is one I highly recommend for anyone, not just those wishing to beautify their publications.  Her posts are knowledgeable, well-written and so engaging.  She can also be found on Twitter and FaceBook and those are well worth the follow too.

Beth takes nerd to a whole new level and she's proud of her nerdiness.  LONG LIVE THE NERDS!

Follow Friday: A Family Tapestry

I'm loving being a member of the Geneabloggers community.  There are so many new blogs for me to look at so it was very difficult to make a decision on which one to highlight for today's Follow Friday post.  Today's lucky winner is A Family Tapestry.  Jacqi's post on The Other Family was a great discussion about the mystery surrounding one of her ancestors and their half-siblings.  Her posts come across as very conversational, as though she is standing in a room speaking directly to you about this mystery she's currently researching.  That single post made me sincerely hope she finds the answers she's currently seeking on this family.

I'm looking forward to her future posts and am hoping maybe some of her research techniques will be of use to me in tracking down my own mysterious Sarah Ann Craig and family.

Follow Friday: Carolina Girl Genealogy

Purely by chance I stumbled across Carolina Girl's blog.  I was searching something genealogy-related (hey, what can I say, I've slept since then!) and ran across her post "Blogging + Cousin Bait = Mystery Picture Success!".  It was such an enjoyable read that I started looking at her other posts and now I subscribe to her blog as well as following her on Twitter.  She has an honest, unpretentious writing style that appeals to me as a non-professional genealogist.  And I absolutely adore her "This Week On My Family History Calendar" posts.  It's such a unique idea!

And, Cheri, if you're reading this, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU!!!  Your encouragement to start my own blog was the last push I needed to take the leap and do it!