Week In Review

It's been an active week in the world of genealogy! So rather than limit myself to blogging about one topic I decided to mention a few.

A read a very thought provoking blog this week by Michael Hait at Planting the Seeds, titled "The Genealogy Paradigm Shift: Are bloggers the new "experts"?" Michael discusses how geneabloggers are becoming viewed as something akin to experts in the field of genealogy. He also points out the lagging membership of genealogy societies, the importance of an online presence and support of these local societies. There were a lot of very interesting points made in the article, it's insightful, and I think it is a great read.

Are you attending RootsTech? Last week there was an uproar in the genealogy community, when we found out there would a ban on book sellers in the vendor hall at RootsTech. It was an interesting choice to make by RootsTech. I watched/read with increasing fascination at the comments made on Facebook and blogs expressing outrage over this decision. Well, RootsTech must have read all of the outraged comments as well and reversed their decision. Book vendors will now be allowed in the vendor hall.

There is an App for that! MyHeritage has released the news that they now have an App available for free for iPad, iPhone, and Android.

Wanna go to genealogy summer camp? The Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University is the place to be. Registration begins on January 17th at 11:00 a.m. EST. This is a great institute and learning opportunity. Imagine focused instruction on a genealogy topic, and socializing with your genealogy peers for a whole week! Check out their website for the description of courses to be offered this summer.

Finally, the news I was really excited to find out about is that Elizabeth Shown Mills has released a website called Historic Pathways. Elizabeth is a renowned genealogist with an impressive list of credits. The website lists the books Elizabeth has written and just a portion of the numerous articles she has authored. If you want to learn by example, then reading anything by Elizabeth is an excellent choice.

Well, those are the highlights. Hope you are all able to take this last week before Christmas to sit back and relax a bit. I know I'll be reading those articles on the Historic Pathways site whenever I get a chance.

A Day At The Local Genealogical Seminar

On Saturday I spent my day at the 25th Annual Genealogical Seminar hosted by the Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society and Tennessee Historical Society. I went last year and learned a lot, and this year was just as informative.

The first session was presented by Elizabeth Shown Mills titled, "Problem Solving in the Problem-Riddled Carolina Backcountry." Elizabeth is a wonderful speaker and a wealth of information. It is impossible to attend any of her presentations without walking away more knowledgeable. Although the talk was focused on the Carolinas, many of the research techniques for finding information could be used elsewhere. One idea she presented a few examples of, is to always look at the original document. Many times there are abstracts or indexes that don't include information that could be key to solving questions or problems regarding your ancestors.

Next, after a quick break, was "Inheritance Laws and Estate Settlements in the Carolinas" presented by J. Mark Lowe. I'm always impressed at the variety and knowledge of topics Mark presents. Again, although the focus was the Carolinas, there was much discussed that could be applied elsewhere. The main idea being that when conducting research it is important to understand legal lingo, the laws, and how they apply to the area you are researching.

After lunch two sessions were presented by Charles A. Sherrill titled, "Service Records are Just the Beginning: Finding Your Family's Whole Civil War Story" and "The Late Unpleasantness: Research in Civil War Records Created After 1865." Chuck discussed many different resources for finding information on your Civil War ancestors; Union, Confederate, and civilian. There are just too many sources to list or discuss in this post. However, if you like maps then you may want to take a look at "Official Military Atlas Of the Civil War" by George Davis. It contains detailed maps of the areas where battles and marches took place. Another obscure source was "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1861-1865)" published by Broadfoot Publishing Company. There is a 3 volume index listing the case studies of wounded soldiers by name and unit too.

By the end of the day my brain was full of new information and ideas. I have all sorts of new research plans forming in my mind. My list of things to read, sites to explore and microfilm to look at has grown. It was a good day.