Geneabloggers: 41 new blogs?

As readers know, Tracing the Tribe often lets them know about the new blogs discovered by Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers.

Although he recently posted 11 new blogs, he did post another, listing 41 new blogs on December 4.

One never knows how a particular blog might help you in your own quest, so check these out and you might receive some help for some aspect of your search. I've written only smatterings of the blog descriptions, so if you want more, see the link above, or click on each individual blog URL.

All About GEN
Individual family history

Ancestor Search
Australia genealogy, Individual family history

Anderson / Spence / McKenney, 1800’s
Individual family history

Annapolis Royal Heritage
Canadian genealogy

• Author is a museum director in Annapolis Royal, and will try to feature some interesting artifacts and archival resources in the collections.

Are My Roots Showing?
Individual family history

Arkansas Roots: The Stories of My Family
Arkansas genealogy, Individual family history

•  SMITH, SLOAN, HAWKINS & PATTILLO, Dallas County, Arkansas; POOLE, Union & Hemstead Counties.

Barnett Family Genealogy
Individual family history

• Barnetts of Parker County, Texas.

Borreson Cousins
Individual family history

• Norwegian immigrants Emil Borresen and Gina Estensen married in 1899 in Pigeon Falls, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, had 10 children and 29 grandchildren. Author is one of the grandchildren.

Butler Cemetery
African-American genealogy, Cemetery blog, New Jersey genealogy

• Butler Cemetery (established c1867 by Dempsey Daniel Butler, prominent businessman, real estate entrepreneur, and more. When he died in January 1900, he was noted as the wealthiest African American in New Jersey.

Digging Under My Family Tree
Individual family history

Dr D Digs Up Ancestors
Genealogy education

Exile’s Return
Individual family history

Fiji Genealogy
Fiji genealogy,

• Many resources and ideas for tracing your family tree and researching your family’s history in Fiji. Whether your ancestor was a temporary visitor who married or died in Fiji, or whether you are descended from a long line of settlers or natives, you will find something here to help you...lists of websites, books, and repositories of records and microfilmed records to help you...

Genealogie Blog
French genealogy

• Author is professional genealogist Stéphane Cosson.

Genealogy Dragnet
Individual family history

Genealogy of Oldendorf, und Nahrendorf
German genealogy

• Regional villages: Dannenberg area, Uelzen,Elbe region, Goehrde and Bleckede area.

Genealogy Quest
Individual family history

Geoff’s Genealogy
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Glasgow Ancestry
Scottish genealogy

Gregory Fearon’s Family History Blog
Individual family history

Glimpsing the Past
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Grow Your Own Family Tree
Genealogy industry blog, Irish genealogy, UK genealogy

• Author Alan Stewart writes regularly for UK magazines Practical Family History and Family Tree Magazine, and for North American-based Internet Genealogy and Discovering Family History, among others..

In Our Hearts: A Family Tribute & Scrapbook
African-American genealogy, Alabama genealogy, Individual family history

• Ford, Martin, Morton, Green(e)

Jen’s Genealogy Pages
Canadian genealogy, Individual family history

• St. John, Coulman, Fee, Hunter – and other associated families (including Davey, Summerville, Lusty, Salter, Thomas, Ansted, Burton, Doan and Oakley)...Ontario and Quebec in the 1800s...England, Ireland and Palatine Germany in the 1800s and earlier.

Jones Family Matters
Individual family history

• Jones, Ryan, von der Heide, Cronin, Probert, Dailey, Wainright, Reed and Hellmann.

Marilyn’s Family History News
California genealogy, Genealogy industry

Murmurd’s Franco-American and Quebec Genealogy
Canadian genealogy, French-Canadian genealogy

NGS Family History Conference Blog
Genealogy conference blog, Genealogical society blog

• Hello and welcome to the home of the NGS 2011 official conference blog. We are thrilled that you will be joining us in Charleston, South Carolina and hope to make this an interactive and fun experience leading up to the event... Stay tuned for updates on presenters, vendors, sponsors, registration, accommodations, local sites, and much more.

Our Family Quilt
Individual family history

Peter’s Family History Blog
Genealogy education

Pursuits of a Desperate Genie
Individual family history

• Brookyn, NY is exploding with history and the passion I have for preserving our heritage has overwhelmed my life. My family and friends have had their fair share of “Did you know…!” I love researching, googling for hours, visiting cemeteries, learning new technology and connecting with others to share stories and information. Whenever I hit roadblocks I start quizzing the next person I’m with and before you know it I am writing out their family tree!

Roots and Stones: A Canadian Girl’s Genealogy Diary
Canadian genealogy, Individual family history

• A 6th-generation Canadian, who has been hunting for her roots for the past decade-ish.

Seattle Genealogical Society
Genealogical society, Washington genealogy

• Welcome to the SGS President’s blog.

Smiddy Family Genealogy
Surname blog

Tattered Past
Individual family history

The Bowdens of Popes Creek
African-American genealogy, Individual family history, Virginia genealogy

• Four generations of (Mulatto) Indentured Servants to the Monroe & Washington Family.

The Historian’s Family
Individual family history,

• The author is an instructor at a community college in the Midwest, who completed a PhD in history at the University of Glasgow with a specialization in Scottish migration; also interested in the bridging the gap between academic and “armchair” historians.

They Came to Montana
Individual family history, Montana genealogy

TMG Sydney
Australian genealogy, Genealogical society blog, Technology blog

• This blog is authored by Carole Riley, whom I met on my trip to Australia last spring.

Virtual Tombstone Biographer
Cemetery blogs

Yesterday’s Girl
Individual family history (Engand, Ireand, Newfoundand, Boston)

For more information, see Thomas' original post (link above) or click on each blog.

Montana: An officer, a dog and a rabbi ..

How does a Montana police officer communicate with his Israeli-trained sniffer dog who only understands Hebrew?

He finds a Hasidic rabbi - a rare commodity in the state - to tutor him in Hebrew.

Nu? You were expecting a joke from that headline?

The Jewish world learned about Montana in a big way back in 1993 when homes displaying a hanukiah (menorah) were broken into by vandals. Church leaders organized a successful protest by more than 10,000 city residents and business owners to display the holiday symbol in their windows to support and protect the tiny Jewish community of some 36 families.

But Jews have been in the state since the 19th century, when immigrant Jews arrived in mining towns and worked in jobs needed by the miners and townspeople. Butte had kosher markets, B'nai B'rith, a Jewish mayor and three synagogues. Helena's Temple Emanu-El (built in 1891) could seat 500 worshippers, and its cemetery has stones dating to 1866.

Today, there are many fewer Jews than in the old days, but there are now three rabbis. Two are in Bozeman, one in Whitefish - Tracing the Tribe can imagine the jokes about that one!

Eric A. Stern, of Helena, is senior counselor to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, and wrote a New York Times column on the Montana rabbis and an Israeli-trained bomb-sniffing security dog.

In Montana, a rabbi is an unusual sight. So when a Hasidic one walked into the State Capitol last December, with his long beard, black hat and long black coat, a police officer grabbed his bomb-sniffing German shepherd and went to ask the exotic visitor a few questions.

Last year, all the rabbis were at the Capitol on Chanukah to light the menorah. That's when the security officer and his dog followed the rabbi.


Amid the haggling of who gets to light the candles in which order, reports Stern, other attendees commented that a Great Falls supermarket would carry matzo on Passover and a Missoula man mentioned his pastrami shipment from Katz's Deli in New York. Things seem to be changing in Montana.

The officer and his dog watched the ceremony and the chanted Hebrew blessings.

According to Stern, the dog sat at attention, watching the ceremony with a peculiar expression on its face, a look of intense interest. After the ceremony, the officer approached the Hasidic rabbi, introduced himself and Miky, and asked some questions.

Miky was born in a Dutch animal shelter and shipped to Israel as a puppy and trained by the IDF to sniff out explosives. The Helena Police Department needed such a talented animal - the cost is around $20,000 - but learned it could import a surplus bomb dog from Israel for only the airline ticket. Miky's new home was Montana.

The problem: Miky had been trained in Hebrew and his non-Jewish handler received only a list of Hebrew commands and expressions. While Fosket tried practicing and also studying a Hebrew audio-book to learn more, Miky didn't respond or understand what he was to do.

Stern comments that Mikey was perhaps just using Fosket's bad accent as an excuse to ignore him. The officer needed a Hebrew tutor.

Lubavitch Rabbi Chaim Bruk - a recent immigrant from Brooklyn (definitely a different country than Montana!) now helps Miky and Fosket when needed. Fosket has learned to pronounce the difficult Hebrew/Yiddish "ch" (as in CHanukah, CHutzpah, CHaroset, etc.).

Happy officer, happy dog and, says Stern, the rabbi now has someone to converse with in Hebrew.

Read the happy story at the link above.

A slower pace of travel

We arrived in Chicago a few hours ago after a two-day trip from Seattle on Amtrak's Empire Builder, train number 8, which crossed Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Lyn Blyden - president of the JGS of Washington State - and I left Seattle at 4.30pm Wednesday and arrived here Friday around 5pm, just about an hour late. Here are some notes written on this kicked-back mode of transportation.

We enjoyed this voluntary email vacation - she's trying to finish "Lost" by Daniel Mendelsohn up in the observation lounge, while I have a stack of computer magazines.

We've shared dining room tables with interesting fellow travelers and discussing each others' reasons for taking the train to our destinations. As we mention we're on our way to a genealogy conference, most chime in with their own or relatives' experiences. Genealogy is always a great ice breaker!

We learned about how apples are stored from a Yakima couple who were a bit disparaging of Wenatchee, which calls itself the apple capital of the world, as we went through the town.

We enjoyed two meals with a couple who used to teach at the American school in the Philippines and now were going to the North Dakota wedding of a grandson of friends they've known for 40 years.

We had breakfast with a woman who weaves and her young nephew, a 4-H-er and learned interesting facts about the Nubian goats he raises for milk and exhibits at state fairs.

We learned that the only two lower-48 states that Amtrak doesn't cover are South Dakota and another one I promptly forgot. If we'd known that before the trip, we could have won a bottle of wine. We also learned that very few people can recite the names of all seven dwarves from Sleeping Beauty. Can you? Hint: The seventh one is not Irving!

A lot of Upper Midwest phrases pepper the conversations we hear, such as "You betcha!" that I've only heard on television programs and films like "Fargo," which was one of our stops.

While I knew I wouldn't have email - Amtrak has not yet caught up with the 21st century - I hadn't realized that the open expanses of Montana's Big Sky Country and North Dakota would also produce "no service available" or "emergency calls only" screens on my newish cell phone. Somehow the lack of cell service was more disturbing than lack of internet. We have grown so dependent on instant electronic communication, some might say too dependent.

There were about 10 minutes of rain, followed by a magnificent rainbow, which was worth the entire trip. We tried to watch for the Perseid meteor showers the first night out, and think we saw two, but the swaying motion of the train put us to sleep.

At every stop with a few minutes' wait, passengers ran out on platforms trying to communicate on iPhones, BlackBerrys and ordinary old cells - no one had service but it was fun watching them try - shaking their phones and wondering what was wrong, finding it hard to believe that there really was a place in America with NO cell tower.

So now - along with the open fields, corn fields, far-away herds of cattle and horses, bales of hay, clouds so close you can touch them - I'm also dreading the hundreds of emails I'll find when we get to Chicago. I finally got some cell service as we approached Milwaukee and connected with some people.

It was a great trip through beautiful countryside and natural scenery, from open fields to ancient forests, reminiscent of "Jurassic Park." Mountains, rivers, skirting some national parks - all were part of this ride.

It's good to kickback once in a while.

Amazingly, although we had been out of touch with the world for almost two days, the world was still there and nothing much had happened, except for a lot of medals won at the Olympics.

Hilary Henkin (formerly of Atlanta, now Los Angeles) is our third roomie at the conference and she's bringing along a special device that should work in the room, so all of us can be online and wireless at the same time.

I'm hoping to meet some Talalay relatives in Chicago on Saturday afternoon. This will be a first-ever reunion with this particular branch with origins in Novgorod Severskiy, Chernigov gubernia (and Mogilev, Belarus before). I have previously met Arkadiy's daughter Rina and her family who used to live in Israel and now in New Jersey, and Zhanna's son and his family in Israel.

On Saturday morning, some of us are going to services at Rabbi Caper Funnye's the Ethiopian Beth Shalom southside synagogue. In the evening, a group of DNA people are getting together to see Second City, for a Sunday city boat ride, and a Monday night dinner. It should be fun.

The remainder of the week will be non-stop conference activities from early morning to late at night.

After registering and unpacking, we went for dinner and ran into Judy Simon, who had just arrived from New York. As we walked into the Italian restaurant across from the hotel, we saw Catherine Youngren, president of the Jewish Genealogical Institute (Vancouver BC Canada), and she joined our table. We had a far-ranging discussion and went over our respective years. One of the nicest things about these conferences is meeting friends from all over and re-connecting.

Jeff Malka, a pioneer Sephardic researcher - who also has the www. SephardicGen.com site, asked Judy and I to help out during the Sephardic Special Interest Group meeting. Judy is presenting a fascinating talk for the Sephardic SIG meeting from 9.45-11am on Tuesday, focused on the IberianAshkenaz Project, which Judy and I co-administer at Family Tree DNA. It is for Eastern European Ashkenazim who carry Sephardic surnames, or a Sephardic genetic condition, or have a strong oral history of Sephardic roots. I'll be relating some other information.

Every day more people join; about two-thirds of these ostensible Ashkenazim are genetic matches with Converso/Hispanic families in the US or elsewhere. We've had some very interesting matches recently and participants have upgraded tests to get a better handle on their most recent common ancestors.

We are always happy to help Jeff and to convey more Sephardic research information.

The importance of the IberianAshkenaz project is to encourage researchers to record family stories, no matter how strange or silly they seem, and to attempt to find the kernel of truth, illustrated by genetic matches.

It also points up that we don't always know who we really are, how we got here (wherever "here" is) , or where we've been for centuries. And it underlines the bottom line that researchers should always be prepared for what testing might discover or uncover.

I'll be posting as much as possible about the different sessions I attend over this coming week.

And, if you weren't able to make it to Chicago this year, enjoy Tracing the Tribe's postings and remember that 2009 will be in Philadelphia, from August 2-7. Think ahead and plan for that one as soon as the announcements are made.