Online: Top 10 gen mags

Genealogy in Time has two interesting articles online now.

The first is a list of the top 10 most popular online genealogy magazines, according to Alexa, which measures Internet traffic and monitors millions of online sources including thousands of genealogy sites. The second is a top 10 list of 2009's most popular genealogy themes.

Read the first here.

The list is headed by our geneablogger colleague Dick Eastman, of Eastman's Online Genealogy Magazine. When Dick started writing, there was no such thing as a blog, thus he decided to call it a magazine, but Tracing the Tribe is always proud to call him a fellow geneablogger!

The Top 10 list with links to each:

1. Eastman’s Online Genealogy Magazine [Link]
2. Family Tree Magazine [Link]
3. Family Chronicle Magazine [Link]
4. Journal of Genetic Genealogy [Link]
5. The Global Gazette [Link]
6. Genealogy In Time [Link]
7. Genealogy Roots Blog [Link]
8. Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly – This is the go-to genealogy site for anyone wanting to trace their roots in the State of Georgia. [Link]
9. Genealogy Magazine [Link]
10. Family Research [Link]

For more on each publication, click the link above and also see Alexa's most recent list here.

The second article is a 2009 roundup of top genealogy news stories and themes. Read Genealogy in Time's article here for more on each. Last year, genetic testing topped the list; this year's is more diverse and is topped by privacy or lack of same for online personal gen information.

Here are the top 10 in reverse order:

10. Long Life Does Run in Families – Long Life Runs in Families.

9. Who Owns Your Online Genealogy Information – Who Owns Your Online Genealogy Information.

8. DNA Confirms Final Remains of Russian Royal Family – DNA Confirms Remains of Russian Royal Family.

7. The Drive for Youthfulness Even Extends to the Grave - Obituary Photos are Getting Younger.

6. The Downside of Genetic Genealogy Tests – Germany Bans Genetic Genealogy Tests.

5. Europe Remains at the Forefront of Genealogy Privacy – Europe Demands Privacy Standards for Social Networking Sites.

4. Why Your Ancestors Kept Changing Their Name – Why Immigrants Change Their Name.

3. Facebook and Privacy – Privacy Fears Raised Over Genealogy Application on Facebook, Regulator Finds Facebook has Serious Privacy Gaps, Facebook Announces Tighter Privacy Standards and Google Ads New Privacy Tools: Implications for Genealogy.

2. The Biggest Genealogy Company Lists on the Stock Exchange – Genealogy This Week and Why Are Newspapers Dying?

1. We Now Know How Much We Don’t Know About Our Ancestors

According to Genealogy in Time, "we still do not have definitive answers to some of the really big genealogy questions. So, the next time you feel frustrated in your genealogy searches, take heart. You are in good company!"

Enjoy your read!

Challenge: Top 10 genealogy web sites

We can always count on Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings to challenge us with his Saturday Night puzzles.

Here's his latest:

"Let's do a Top Ten list of Favorite Genealogy Web Sites. These can be record databases, data portals, how-to sites, family trees, software, entertainment, blogs, etc. Your choice, your opinion - what educates, helps, or entertains you in your genealogy quest for a big GEDCOM file?"

I use these resources so frequently that there really isn't any relevant order - therefore, no numbers:

- Jewishgen.org - All things Jewish genealogically-related, particularly Ashkenazi.
- SephardicGen.com - Extensive Sephardic resources.
- Ancestry.com - For so much.
- Sephardim.com - Sephardic Name Search Engine indexing many essential books.
- Library of Congress - Extensive exhibits, information, photos, collections.
- Footnote.com, NewspaperARCHIVES.com and GenealogyBank.com - Provide historical event context and more specific family mentions. (Similar yet different resources!)
- Cyndislist.com - So many resource categories.
- RootsTelevision.com - Genea-videos.
- MyHeritage.com - An amazing genea-relevant search engine for 1,500 sites.
- Jewish Encyclopedia 1901-1906 - The Jewish world the way it was.

And, of course, Chris Dunham's The Genealogue for a daily genea-giggle. Too many blogs for this challenge - I'd need a top 50 just for blogs.

And while we're on that subject, do you remember when a genealogist was a generalist who knew everything?

Today - as so many more people have found their passion and focus through blogging - there is an entire field of specialists. This is an important development, in my opinion.

If we need an answer to a Polish research question, we know whom to ask. Determining the proper answer - if we haven't previously researched that area - could take hours of study. For an expert, it might take only a few minutes to provide proper direction.

While this does not negate each researcher's responsibility to learn as much as possible about his or her own possible sources, localities and available records, it also means we do have a list of friendly genea-bloggers to ask direction from and save ourselves from wild goose chases.

It is now easier to find (Genealogy Blog Finder, Cyndi's List, Joe Beine) where the experts for a certain topic "live," and who can be counted on to know as much as possible about a specific topic or locality.