Geneabloggers: New blogs

We've missed a few weeks of the new geneablogs discovered by Thomas MacEntee over at Geneabloggers.com.

While many spotlighted new blogs focus on individual family history, there are quite a few in other categories and even some unique ones.

Here are a few that we found most interesting, along with the links to the past few editions for more information on many others.

The Ultimate Family History Organizing System

Genealogy education

Sue Beus has a passion for genealogy work. After years of research she has developed a unique system to easily organize and preserve your family history.

Heraldry: Musings on an Esoteric Topic
Genealogy education

I’m an Academic Herald. I’m not a “real” herald; I don’t design and register people’s coats of arms (though I can certainly suggest designs for those who might be interested). What I do is study, research, teach, and write about heraldry. (You can find some of my books about heraldry and a list of my articles and presentations about heraldry at “Our Website” below.) And I like to share what I have learned about heraldry, hence this blog. I hope that you’ll find it informative, interesting at least occasionally, and worth your time to come back. Got a question? Comments? Feel free to ask or let me know.

Youth Genealogy & Historical Research
Genealogy education

This blog is designed to be a community blog where genealogists, family historians, and other lovers of history can share tips and resources to aid in the teaching of genealogy and historical research to young people. This blog will also highlight news about youth involved in genealogy and historical research projects. Youth Genealogy and Historical Research blog is owned by Genealogist and Family Historian Drusilla Pair of http://www.professordru.com/  and http://www.findyourfolks.blogspot.com/.

Forgotten Faces and Long Ago Places
Photography blog

As an offshoot of two other blogs Rogers Family History and Teresa’s Tangled Roots, the author has stumbled into a collection of vintage photographs. "It has always disturbed me how many thousands and thousands of 'ancestor' photos are out there in antique stores and on eBay that no one knows who they belong to.  As a genealogist who would give anything to have pictures of her ancestors, it just kills me to see these orphan pictures unclaimed my anyone. These are someone’s family, their ancestors and I wonder sometimes as I look at them if one of them could possibly be one of my ancestors.  As a collector of anything and everything, I have started buying up some of these photos and felt I needed to start sharing these somehow.  Most have no names – why didn’t people put names on the back of these pictures?!?  I will try to post many of the many photos I have, perhaps someone will recognize one or two.  If you do, please let me know, I would be happy to reunite these photographs (people) with their descendants if contacted."

Storytree Blog (from new site StoryTree.me)
Genealogy vendor, Writing Your Family History

Family stories form an important part of a person’s identity – stories about love, friendship, childhood dreams, hardships, triumphs, and the ongoing journey that is life. Too often these stories remain unshared and are forgotten before they can be recorded. Do you wish there were a better way to share meaningful stories with your family?

We at StoryTree feel the same way and this is what has driven us to come up with a solution to this problem. The StoryTree team is dedicated to help you preserve your precious family memories and share them with the ones you love. As time passes, your captured stories come to represent a bond across generations and become invaluable to your family’s collective identity. Your family history has finally found a place to reside.

Storytree was launched out of the Stanford d.school where we discovered a deep unmet need using the design thinking process. We hope that through StoryTree we can achieve our goals to make a positive difference in the world through good design.

The Genealogy Mom

Genealogy education

The site is dedicated to helping others uncover their family history and form an appreciation for the past and those who came before. The Genealogy Mom has been researching genealogical histories for nearly twenty years and has assisted people from all across the United States. We hope to offer insight not found anywhere else and teach others how to move forward in their family research. We are also available to help with research if needed. Please check out the sight today and let us know if we can help.

Past editions of New Blog posts at Geneabloggers.com:
http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-july-30-2011/
http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-july-23-2011/
http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-july-16-2011/
http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-july-9-2011/

Calling all bloggers: Required reading!

What kind of blogger are you?

Tracing the Tribe doesn't mean the category (e.g., geneabloggers), but personality type.

According to Stephen Guise of Deep Existence, who guest-posted on Problogger.net, there are at least 23 types, including the Machine, Ninja, Social Engineer, Name-Dropper, Comedian, Guru, Disruptor - even the Beloved - and some that Guise decided not to write about.

For each, he gives pros and cons.

The last time we checked, there were some 49 comments.

To read all about the 23, click here.

Consider subscribing to the Problogger newsetter which often offers articles of blogging interest. Check out the site's various sections.

Happy reading!

GeneaSpeak: New resource for geneabloggers

Tracing the Tribe had advance notice of the creation of GeneaSpeak.

Now that Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers.com has announced this resource, here's the official announcement:

GeneaSpeak is a community-driven resource that allows genealogy speakers to post their own profiles and speaking engagements in order to publicize their presentations.

It replaces the GeneaBloggers Speakers Bureau, which was located at Geneabloggers.com, since 2009. 

Additionally, it will provide news and insights valuable to the genealogy speaking community.

Speakers and presenters currently on the genealogy speaking circuit and who have a familiarity with blogging and using Google Calendars, can request author access by emailing geneabloggers@gmail.com.

Visit Geneabloggers.com and GeneaSpeak.com for more information.

UK: Tracing the Tribe noted in gen mag

When one is recuperating from a bug, it is nice to hear from friends providing good news.

Such was the case with two emails in two days - from geneablogger FootnoteMaven and Jeremy Frankel (president of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society - both informing Tracing the Tribe that we were featured in the spring issue of the UK genealogy magazine, Your Family Tree.

Jeremy, now visiting in the UK, is bringing back a copy of the issue for us.

Alan Crosby wrote an excellent article about genealogy blogging and mentioned the "Top Three: Unsung Heroes," including Tracing the Tribe.

It was very nice to be recognized alongside Heritage of Wales and The Victorianist.

His story noted another good friend - Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com. Crosby mentioned that Thomas now lists some 1,200 categorized genealogy blogs, but a more accurate count is now in the neighborhood of 1,700!

Dick Eastman and other US and UK geneabloggers were mentioned in the story, which gave a nuts and bolts take on setting up a genealogy blog.

It also shows off Tracing the Tribe's logo, designed by the above-mentioned - and very talented - FootnoteMaven!

Thank you, Alan Crosby!

Top 40 Gen Blogs: Voting deadline tonight!

The voting deadine for the 2011 edition of Family Tree Magazine's Top 40 genealogy blogs is tonight: Monday, December 20, at 11.59pm.

Don't forget to participate and vote - you may vote multiple times - for your favorites among the 117 blogs in eight categories. You may vote for five blogs in each category. [Tracing the Tribe is listed in the Heritage category.]

For more information on the authors of the blogs (and the URLs), click here to see Thomas MacEntee's post.

Click here for the voting form.

Results will be announced in the July 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine.

2011 Top 40 Blogs: Tracing the Tribe nominated

Tracing the Tribe is deeply honored to be nominated - in the Heritage category - for the 2011 edition of the Top 40 Best Genealogy Blogs, sponsored by Family Tree Magazine.

This year, the magazine enlisted top bloggers to help formulate the categories, qualifications, with nominations provided by readers. The results of the voting - the Family Tree 40 - will be announced in the July 2011 issue of the magazine.

The Family Tree 40 panelists included experts Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems),  Randy Seaver (Genea-Musings), Myrt (DearMyrtle blog) and Thomas MacEntee (Geneabloggers).

The list includes excellent blogs in eight categories:

• Local/regional history and genealogy: Blogs focused on research in a specific county, state or region. Most library and archive blogs, as well as many local historical and genealogical society blogs, are here.

• Heritage groups: Blogs focusing on the family history of a specific ethnic, religious or national background (such as African-American, Jewish, Polish, etc.) [Tracing the Tribe is in this category]

• Research advice and how-to: Blogs that primarily explain how to research, analyze photos or perform various family history tasks. These offer tips, strategies and examples; explain genealogical concepts; and write about how to use new resources.

• Cemeteries: These feature content primarily about cemetery research and visiting cemeteries. Many feature tombstone photos and transcriptions, with information about those interred.

• “My Family History”: Blogs about the blogger’s own roots, including accounts of personal research, personal family photos and heirlooms, stories, recipes, etc.

• “Everything” blogs: Blogs that cover it all - genealogy news, research advice, opinions, local history, family stories, etc.

• New blogs: Blogs launched during the past year.

• Technology: Blogs focused on genealogy websites, software, DNA testing or other aspects of technology as it relates to genealogy.

Click here to vote in the Family Tree 40.

Vote for five blogs in each of the eight categories, through 11.59am, Monday, December 20. Voters may vote as often as they wish.

Tracing the Tribe is delighted to have been nominated.

Where in the world is Schelly?

Readers have been wondering why Tracing the Tribe has been so quiet for the past week or so.

We have just transplanted back to the US - to New Mexico, known as the Land of Enchantment.

What is it like here in mid-November? Beautiful blue skies, bright sunshine, clean clear air, a bit nippy during the day, but comfortable! This was the view from our living room about five minutes ago.

We've spent the past few days getting settled in our new place and restocking with the essentials of life.

Everyone we've met has been very friendly and interested in the fact that we moved here from Israel. Everyone has a story of a connection, either because of their own family history (Sephardic, Converso) or their support for Israel. I've met such interesting people in just the first few days.

For a genealogist - and a Jewish genealogist in particular - meeting our next door neighbor was fortuitous. This isn't New York City, where even the Italians are Jewish (or so we used to say!), and the Jewish population is spread out across the city, so it was quite a surprise to meet our MOT neighbor.

She has roots in Nesvizh, Belarus. Their name, she reported, was Odiansky, changed to Gordon at Ellis Island (NOT!), and that she can't find information because everything over there was destroyed (NOT!). We plan to sit down this week and see what we can find in the Belarus and other records. She also has distant cousins in Ramat Gan (adjacent to Tel Aviv).

We haven't had too much time yet for touristy things, but hope to get to some places next week.

Now that our internet, cable and phones are connected, Tracing the Tribe can get back to work.

I'm also really looking forward to meeting everyone at the New Mexico Genealogy Society and the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society.

Tel Aviv: Family history festival, Sept. 26-28

Tracing the Tribe will be covering a special event Sunday-Tuesday, September 26-28, during the week-long holiday of Sukkot.

This is when families go on outings, take to the roads, visit with friends and relatives, vacation in other parts of the country and participate in many events listed in newspapers, magazines and on television.

Tracing the Tribe - wearing our multiple hats - will cover the Beit Hatfutsot (Museum of the Jewish People) first-ever "One Family, Many Faces" Festival. The free event is open Sunday-Tuesday, 9.30am-5pm, September 26-28, at the museum and on the surrounding Tel Aviv University campus.

Family history and genealogy will play a big part at this event, and Tracing the Tribe will bring it to you.

In addition to usual festival fare of music, food, displays, and more, MyHeritage.com is bringing a 15-person team to man 50 computers in the museum lobby.

Visitors will sign up for a free one-on-one personal "getting-started" consultation to set up their family trees and begin their research.

There will also be a giant Jewish Family Tree mural, and families will be able to add a pomegranate to the tree with their surname.

The Israel Genealogical Society will also be there. Tracing the Tribe will be wearing several hats - as blogger and helping out - at both the MyHeritage event and the adjacent IGS table.

Israeli readers of Tracing the Tribe are welcome to drop by and say hello in person.

See you at the festival!

Summer travels are over!

Tracing the Tribe is home, following a really busy summer of conferences, traveling, speaking and visiting with friends and family.

I'm also trying to catch up on a series of articles for a well-known website and other assignments.

A serious internet connection problem put a damper on my usual frenetic blogging pace, but that's been fixed!

Announcements on upcoming activities will be made soon.

Genealogy In Time: 20 tips to good genblogging

An interesting article over at GenealogyInTime listed 20 tips on what makes a good genealogy blog.

Blogs are the cornerstone of any online community. Some genealogy blogs are excellent, others are very good and some need work. In the interest of improving the quality of dialog in the genealogy community, GenealogyInTime™ has made a list of what we think makes a good genealogy blog.

The list can also be applied to all types of blogs - and their readers - not just geneablogs.

Do you think Tracing the Tribe meets these items?

As a journalist, many are second nature.

As a Jewish genealogist, I believe it is important to provide content pointing to many diverse resources and subjects because Jewish genealogy is multi-disciplinary. It covers Jewish history, secular history, sociology, anthropology, books, events, films, databases, new online resources, little-known communities, languages, DNA, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim, food traditions and a long list of other essential information, including news stories impacting what and how we research our families and locations of interest.

Read the full descriptions of each tip here.

1. Quality of Writing
2. Original Content
3. Distinctive Voice
4. See a Need, Fill a Need
5. Use Proper Headlines
6. Regular Updates
7. Avoid Filler Material
8. Quality over Quantity
9. Stay on Topic
10. Set a Consistent Pace
11. Use More than Just Words
12. Mix it Up
13. Criticism is cheap
14. No Copying
15. Provide Proper Attribution
16. Attribution is Not the Same as Approval
17. Disclose All Payments
18. Share Good Sources
19. Share Your Success
20. Inspire Others

Does Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog meet these points? I'd like to hear from readers.

New feature: More accessibility for readers

Tracing the Tribe is now more accessible to readers with vision problems.

Thanks to Thomas MacEntee at Geneablogger, I learned about a new feature that may prove very useful for those readers.

Readers do not need to download the toolbar onto their own computers, but can merely click the new icon - directly above Tracing the Tribe's logo - at the top of the right sidebar. It looks like this:

Click the icon at the top of the right sidebar and, in a few seconds, a toolbar will appear on the top left of the blog page.

You can zoom in and out on the text, change the text page style (white, black, yellow text on different backgrounds), convert a whole page of (or selected text) to audio (with what seems a Scottish accent!), or even change the font.

I'm interested in hearing from readers who have tried it.

The University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Science provides the JISC TechDis ToolBar. Click on the site to try out the demo (see the left sidebar link) and understand more about it.

Thomas also informed the geneabloggers about this post at makeuseof.com, which offered more information.

Those with vision problems may download the toolbar to their own computers.

Thank you, Thomas, for providing new opportunities to help us learn and to help our readers.

New Gen Blogs: Would you believe 29?

Genealogy blogs are growing exponentially, and our colleague Thomas MacEntee keeps finding them all over the world.

During the week ending May 22, he's discovered 29 genealogy and family-history related blogs. There are now 1,101 geneablogs at Geneabloggers.com.

Topics cover general and individual family history, speakers' presentations, genealogy books, cemeteries, WWII letters, African-American, writing family history and more.

International geographical locations are Canada, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Philippines, Suriname and the UK, while US locations include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Read all about them here.

Geneabloggers are reminded to add a comment to these new blogs welcoming them to our community, to add them to our blog readers if they contain material of use to our interests or to use the Blogger Follow feature - if they are on the Blogger platform.

Jamboree: SCGS sets social media policy

The Southern California Genealogical Society, which runs the annual Jamboree - this year is the 41st - has just posted the event's social media policy.

This is important as the number of attending bloggers has grown exponentially over the past few years.

Tracing the Tribe first attended Jamboree in 2007, and spoke ("Creating Hope") at the writers' breakfast, focusing on how mainstream media family history articles - using my own articles in the Jerusalem Post and other media as examples - not only assist established researchers, but also attract new people to our passion. Those who have never considered investigating their families may read an article in a local paper that ignites the spark of curiosity.

As part of the first-ever innovative Blogger Summit (2008) and Blogger Summit II (2009), Tracing the Tribe will be back for this year's event from July 11-13, for Blogger Summit III (Part 2 for more advanced bloggers) and to also speak on the nuts and bolts of creating a DNA project.

As many as 50 of our blogging colleagues may attend this year, which is sure to be a record. Has anyone called the Guiness World Book of Records? Geneabloggers may want to do that.

With that many bloggers busily blogging, Facebooking and tweeting, it makes sense to have a policy that is fair to everyone. Similar policies have been instituted for other conferences.

Here is Paula's post:

------------------------------

To ensure that we have an environment that is mutually supportive for the social media users, our lecturers, and our lecture audience members, the SCGS Board of Directors adopted the following Social Media Policy:

The Southern California Genealogical Society is an active supporter of the use of social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and blogging) at its events, including the society’s annual Genealogy Jamboree. Event attendees are allowed and encouraged to promote, critique, and review the conference, its exhibitors, speakers, and activities using these forms of media.

Use of smartphones, netbooks, laptops, etc., shall not disrupt other attendees. Mobile device ringers must be set to silent during lecture sessions.

Attendees are prohibited from recording the proceedings of any lecture or workshop session by any means, including but not limited to photography, audio recording, video recording, or verbatim transcription, without expressed written permission from both SCGS and the lecture speaker. Some sessions will be professionally audio recorded and available after the event.

Social media may be used to summarize or extract lecture content provided:

(1) the author is referenced and cited appropriately; and
(2) material is not shared in full.

We fully respect the intellectual property rights of the authors of syllabus materials and lecture content. Copyright laws apply.

-----------------------------------

See you in Burbank!

50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks

Everyone's making a list!

Here are the 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks, compiled by OnlineUniversities.com.

Tracing the Tribe was happy to see many of our geneablogging colleagues listed - as well as ourself.

Americans are proud of their melting-pot culture, but genealogy is also a popular past-time and even profession, as family ancestry is complex and often hard to define. It takes a lot of research to untangle the web of genealogy in order to create a clear family tree, but as an online university student, you’re probably used to taking on similarly large projects. Either as a break from studying, a supplement to your history classes, or even for inspiration to start your own family ancestry research, check out these 50 blogs on genealogy.

General: Here you can learn how to get started with a genealogy project and read about the extraordinary stories that more seasoned researchers have to share.

DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog
Ancestor Search Blog
FamHist
Genea-Musings
The ProGenealogists Genealogy Blog
Genealogy Gems
Tombstone Territory
Genealogy Lines
The "You Go" Genealogy Girls
Renee’s Genealogy Blog
Olive Tree Genealogy Blog
Those Old Memories
Paula’s Genealogical Eclectica
Family Tree Tips

Specific Research Projects: From African American genealogy to Cape Cod family ancestry, learn about specialized research here.

AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors
Anglo-Celtic Connections
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society New
Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog
Nebraska Roots and Ramblings
Cape Cod Genealogical Society
Steve’s Genealogy Blog
The Accidental Genealogist
Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog
Rowan’s Family Tree
Upstate New York Genealogy Blog
Genealogy in New South Wales
Runaway Slave Blog

Libraries and Resources: These blogs are from larger genealogical societies, libraries and other family history resources that can help you learn about the process or find specific information.

Ancestry.com Blog
CaliforniaAncestors.org
Florida Genealogical Society
Indiana Genealogical Society Blog
Creative Gene
KCGS
Genealogy Roots Blog
MoSGA Messenger
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree
The Ancestry Insider
Southern California Genealogical Society and Family Research Blog

News: Keep up with news, conferences, databases, data releases and more when you read these genealogy news blogs.

GenealogyBlog
Family Curator
Arlene Eakle’s Genealogy Blog
2010 NGS Family History Conference
Birmingham Genealogical Society Blog
Family History Expos
Legacy News
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
GeneaBloggers
Genealogy Insider
Genealogy Blog – GeneaNet

See the links above for descriptions of each blog, and look at those which are less familiar. Of course, check all the categories as many blogs do not fit neatly into a single category.

NGS Awards: The complete list of honorees

The National Genealogical Society presented several awards to individuals in recognition of their contributions to the NGS or to the field of genealogy.

For more on each award and the honorees, click here for the NGS UpFront Blog post.

Three individuals received the President's Citation:

-- Peter Broadbent, in appreciation of his two terms on the NGS Board of Directors, assisting with the sale of Glebe House, for his work on Amending and Restating the Articles of Incorporation and ByLaws, and for his wise counsel on numerous issues which came before the board.

-- Connie Lenzen, CG, who has served two terms on the NGS Board, for her leadership as Chair of the Education Committee.

-- Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, for her ongoing promotion of genealogical events and broad support of the genealogical community as a whole.

The Award of Excellence: Genealogical Methods & Sources: Schelly Talalay Dardashti for her article in Family Tree Magazine (September 2009), "Ties That Bind: Jewish Research Strategies." The award is given to an individual or nonprofit organization for a specific, significant single contribution in the form of a book, an article, or a series of articles published during the past three years that discusses genealogical methods and sources and serves to foster scholarship and/or otherwise advances or promotes excellence in genealogy.

The NGSQ Award for Excellence:  Rachal Mills Lennon, CG, for her article “Jonathan Turner- More Than a Name: A Carolina Case Study in Dissecting Records,” which appeared in NGSQ (March 2009). It is given each year for a specific, significant, single contribution in the form of an article or series of articles that serves to foster scholarship and/or advances or promotes excellence in genealogy.

The Family History Writing Contest Award: Patrick Quigley from Ponco Pines, Pennsylvania, and his entry was titled, "The Quigley Family Searches for the American Dream." Contestants must compile a three- or four-generation family history. The  winner receives an expense-paid trip to the next NGS Family History Conference and possible publication in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

The Home Study Scholarship: Terri Hildreth of Madison, Alabama. It is given to encourage those pursuing a career in genealogy.

I am especially indebted to NGS for contributing to awareness of Jewish genealogy research through the Award of Excellence this year.

San Diego: Using Ancestry.com, May 16

Our geneablogging colleague Randy Seaver will speak on "Using Ancestry.com Databases and Family Trees Effectively," at the next meeting of the San Diego Jewish Genealogical Society, on Sunday, May 16.

The program runs from 1-3pm, at the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla.

Randy will discuss and demonstrate these topics and more and will offer recommendations.

The Ancestry.com subscription website has many wonderful features - it's like a lavish buffet where it is difficult to choose! What is best to do and how do you use it?

Searches: basic or advanced search; new or old search screens; exact or ranked matches; full names or wild cards; specific or all databases; restricted collection or whole collection.

For family trees: public or private; one-editor or group editors; GEDCOM upload or enter-by-hand; upload photos and documents; attach historical documents; add stories; "collect" data from others; synchronization with software; etc.

A native San Diegan, Randy is a graduate of San Diego State University in Aerospace Engineering, and is a retired aerodynamics engineer with a 38-year career at Rohr/Goodrich in Chula Vista. His ancestry is mainly colonial New England and Upper Atlantic, with some colonial German, French and Dutch forebears, and several 19th-century English immigrants.

Randy is one of our master geneabloggers, authoring Genea-Musings, The Geneaholic and the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe.

His many genealogy activities include the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (former president, current newsletter editor and research chair); speaking to Southern California societies, libraries and groups; teaching OASIS senior adults beginning computer genealogy classes; authors the Genealogy 2.0 column for the FGS's ForumMagazine; and is a member of NGS, NEHGS, SDGS and CGSSD.

Jerusalem Post: Tracing the Tribe, other gen resources mentioned

David Shamah, who writes on Internet and technology for the Jerusalem Post (print/online), published a roots column today listing various Jewish and general genealogy resources.

"Hi-Tech 101: At the roots of it all" noted that "If you’ve thought about the idea of putting together a family tree, the Internet can be a great friend."

Sources mentioned for tips, information and how to peel away the layers of the past included:

-- Google's cache, Google Earth and Google News
-- Genealogy Gems podcast and the regular site.
-- Cyndi's List
-- Tracing the Tribe (happy dance!)
-- Roots TV's Jewish Roots channel
-- Yad Vashem
-- JewishGen
-- Ellis Island
-- Tribal Pages

In my opinion, there were two major omissions: SephardicGen.com and MyHeritage.com.

Shamah noted links to a page of common genealogical research mistakes at ShoestringGenealogy. A link (broken) was given to a page that I hope refutes the myth that anyone's name was changed at Ellis Island - if we only had a penny for each time this myth has been perpetuated by people who should know better.
 
Read the complete article at the link above.

Ancestor Approved: 10 things about my ancestors

Tracing the Tribe has received the Ancestor Approved award from Pat and Judy, the GenealogyGals.

Their blog is a joint effort.

Award recipients are supposed to report on 10 things learned about our ancestors that have surprised, humbled, or enlightened us, and then pass along the award to 10 more genealogy bloggers who are doing their ancestors proud.

1. Surprised: At the life of my maternal great-grandmother Riva BANK TALALAY - born in a shtetl outside Kovno - who was ran away to the Gypsies - so the story goes - to avoid a disliked marriage. Along the way, she learned herbal healing, midwifery, reading tarot cards and palmistry. When she did marry Aron Peretz Talalay and moved to his agricultural colony Vorotinschtina, some 12 miles southwest of Mogilev, Belarus, she was known for creating the first closet in the shtetl. In Newark, New Jersey, she was also a midwife and healer and well-known for getting her way to make living better for her family.

2. Surprised: That the generation-to-generation one-liner - "This was our name in Spain" - has been corroborated by archival research in Spain and DNA genetic testing.

3. Enlightened: Our TALALAY family's first immigrant ancestor met an English-speaker on the boat over in 1898 who advised him to change his name as no one would give a job to Mr. Tell-a-lie. Thus TOLLIN, TALLIN, TAYLOR, TOLL, TALL and - of course - those lost Philadelphia FEINSTEINs, came about.

4. Enlightened: My maternal FINK (Suchostaw, Galicia -> Ukraine) grandfather and his brothers had a large building maintenance company in New York City. Once, during a window-cleaners' strike, a worker was quoted as calling his employers, "those rats, the FINKs." According to family story, the term "rat-fink" was born.

5. Surprised: On hearing that my mother, as a teen, used to swim across Kauneonga Lake (Catskills, Sullivan County, about 10 miles from Monticello) frequently. It is a very large lake!

6. Humbled: To have found at least one lost branch of the Dardashti family, and thus fulfilling a request of my husband's eldest aunt Nane-jan - made more than 35 years ago in Teheran - to find the lost branches (descendants of relatives who became Moslem) and tell them that they had cousins who thought about them all the time.

7. Humbled: To think about the difficulties Nane-jan underwent as the first Jewish girl to go to school in Teheran in 1902. The community stopped buying from her father, a butcher, and she endured taunts and attacks on her way to school. All her sisters also went to school, with some of them becoming French teachers. It wasn't easy being a father with such advanced enlightened thinking in those days.

8. Frequently flabbergasted when thinking of our newly-connected TALALAY-KATSNELSON relatives (from Bobruisk, Belarus) in Melbourne, Australia. Their eldest daughter Nelly is a journalist and her daughter is Miliana. I'm Schelly, a journalist and our daughter is Liana. Do you also hear Twilight Zone music?

9. Surprised at how much cousin Leon in Melbourne and I resemble each other. His mother was a Talalay whose father (Gamshei) had moved (reasons still unknown) from Mogilev to Bobruisk.

10. Still shocked: My late cousin Victor Talalay (Toronto) and I both located information about the family branch in Israel at the same time, decades ago, when we separately visited Israel and found the data in the English phone book. We each dutifully copied the info and held onto the scraps of paper with name, address and phone number for decades. I finally wrote and located the granddaughter as her grandfather, who placed the entry every year, had died only a year or so prior. He had placed the info in the English phone book every year hoping that US relatives would find it and contact him. He had arrived from Berlin (after leaving Mogilev in 1902 and going to London and Germany) to Israel in 1933. Moral: Never procrastinate when it comes to following up on all clues to family history.

Since I am coming into this award late - procrastination still runs in our family - and I believe almost all bloggers have already been tagged, I am awarding this coveted prize to everyone who has not already been noted.

Best 40 Blogs: Tracing the Tribe is honored!

Family Tree Magazine has just announced the list of 40 best genealogy blogs in the May 2010 issue. Winners just received an email from editor Diane Haddad.

Tracing the Tribe is honored to be among the five blogs in the Heritage category.


In the magazine's "Fab 40" on-line article, Maureen Taylor writes:

Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog

Schelly Talalay Dardashti's passion for Jewish genealogy comes through every post. Since August 2006, she's written on genealogy news and resources, research strategies, Jewish history, museums, and her experiences tracing her own Jewish ancestors through Belarus, Russia, Lithuania and Spain.

Read below for Diane's email and the list of all 40 winners.

Writes Diane:

That’s not to say, of course, that there aren’t many more stellar blogs among the hundreds family historians use to chronicle their successes and brick walls, share history, offer genealogy guidance and more.

All their legions of posts add up to an extraordinary store of collective knowledge about how to discover, preserve and celebrate your family history.

We’re hoping this look at the genealogy blogosphere inspires you to go exploring for more blogs to add to your reader.

See our online article for the complete "FT40" list, as well as tools to find more genealogy blogs. Congratulations to the following Family Tree 40 bloggers (listed in alphabetical order by category). We admire their writing, research and photography skills, and applaud their work to promote the pursuit of family history. I hope their blogs will proudly wear the Family Tree 40 logo!

All-Around
Creative Gene by Jasia Smasha
footnoteMaven by footnoteMaven
GeneaBloggers by Thomas MacEntee
Genea-Musings by Randy Seaver

Cemetery
The Association of Graveyard Rabbits by several authors
Granite in My Blood by Midge Frazel

Corporate
Ancestry.com Blog by various authors

Genetic Genealogy
The Genetic Genealogist by Blaine Bettinger

Heritage
George Geder by George Geder
Scottish Genealogy News and Events by Chris Paton
Small Leaved Shamrock by Lisa
Steve’s Genealogy Blog by Stephen Danko
Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog by Schelly Talalay Dardashti

How-To
Family Matters by Denise Barrett Olson
Genealogy Guys by George G. Morgan and Drew Smith
Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill
The ProGenealogists Blog by various authors

Local & Regional
California Genealogical Society and Library Blog by Kathryn Doyle
Sandusky History by the staff of the Sandusky (Ohio) Library Archives Research Center
Midwestern Microhistory by Harold Henderson

News & Resources
The Ancestry Insider by theAncestry Insider
DearMyrtle by Pat Richley-Erickson
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter by Dick Eastman
GenealogyBlog by Leland Meitzler

Photos & Heirlooms
The Family Curator by Denise Levenick
Shades of the Departed by footnoteMaven

Personal & Family
Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors by Miriam Midkiff
Apple’s Tree by anonymous
BeNotForgot by Vickie Everhart
Educated Genealogist by Sheri Fenley
Greta’s Genealogy Blog by Greta Koehl
Heritage Happens by Cheryl Fleming Palmer
Herstoryan by Herstoryan
Janet the Researcher by Janet Iles
Kinexxions by Becky Wiseman
Little Bytes of Life by Elizabeth
Our Georgia Roots by Luckie Daniels
WeTree by Amy Coffin
West in New England by Bill West
What’s Past is Prologue by Donna Pointkouski

Read the online article by Maureen Taylor at the link above.

Congratulations to all our geneablogger colleagues on this honor!

Toronto: ShalomLife article, Part 2, online

The second installment of an interview with Tracing the Tribe is now online at ShalomLife in Toronto.

See some old family photos and read Dan Verbin's story here.

Questions answered include:

• How I caught the gen bug (for which there is no known antidote),
• How far I've tracked back on my two main research lines,
• What's different about Jewish records vs general records,
• Is it harder for Jewish genealogists than others to trace their families,
• The differences among Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Mizrahi research;
• Crypto-Jews/conversos/bnai anousim, and
• What I'm doing now (including Hong Kong and Australia).

Back to getting some blogging done in Hong Kong.