Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

More SNGF from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings!

Hey genea-philes (that's Kathryn Doyle's Twitter/Facebook moniker), it's Saturday Night -- time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Open your genealogy software program (on your computer or online), and use the Help function to determine how to make a "Problem Report" or "Data Error Report" (or something similar).

2)  Create a "Problem Report" or "Data Error Report" in your software for the persons in your tree (either everyone in the tree, or for a selected number of generations of your ancestors. 

3)  Tell us what type of problems or errors that your report found.  Tell us how many errors were found.  Tell us what problem or error surprised you. 

4)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or a comment on Facebook.

Well, if there's a problem one can have in one's genealogy database, I'm pretty sure I have it.  In fact, I probably have a number of them.

I use MyHeritage.com and their associated Family Tree Builder software as my main database.  In the Tools Menu, I selected the Tree Consistency Checker tool.  It gave me quite a long list of issues I need to eventually resolve.  Here's a partial listing of some of the issues:

• Child born after death of parent.  I have far too many examples of this one.  Now, it's possible for a child to be born after the death of the father, but it's extremely rare for a child to be born after the death of a mother, and it requires a modern medical miracle to make it happen, and then only by minutes.
• Died too old.  Yes, this means some people have incorrect death dates, so the software thinks they died well over 100 years old.  One example is over 300 years old.  I will "resolve" these by working to find the correct death date for them.  A few really did live to be that old, and may not be errors!
• Parent too young.  The software defaults to a warning at less than 16 years of age for the mother.  Now, we all know it's possible that some of those girls had their first a bit younger.  But some of mine are certainly errors, as they show as young as 9 years old.  Too young to be a realistic possibility.  Many show at 14-15 years old, though, which would have been scandalous, but very possible.  Again, more research is needed to confirm dates.
• Parent too old.  I believe it is unlikely that these women actually gave birth in their late 60's.  Even late 40's is stretching things until the recent past when medical technology has allowed for some really radical births.
• Fact occurring after death.  This is just plain errors, or poor research and documentation.
• Siblings age.  Siblings born too close together.  A bit over 9 months is possible, and has been called Irish Twins, which are not really twins at all, but siblings born less than a year apart.  Some of mine show 4 or 5 months apart, which really isn't workable.  Again, somewhere there was sloppy or missing research and documentation work done.
•  Married too young.  Sometimes people married young.  But I highly doubt this many married as young as 12-14 years of age.
• Maiden name similar to married name.  Usually this is identical, from the names being input into the software incorrectly.  Someone (me) put in the married name where the maiden name should have gone.
• Siblings with the same first name.  Actually, this may NOT be an error!  It may be a case of one sibling having died in infancy or early childhood, and the parents used the name again on a later child.  This was not uncommon.  But it bears checking to be sure.  The software is alerting me to a potential issue that should be verified.
• Inconsistent last name spelling.  Again, this may not be an error.  The further back we go, the more creative the spellings of names were. 
• Siblings with different last names.  In this day of broken homes and life partners and such, this is actually becoming too commonplace.  Sometimes the names get changed, but sometimes not. 

 I know I need to do a lot of cleanup work on my database, and I work on that as time allows.  Some of these problem cases are on lines for which I have little or no solid documentation, and usually further back in time.  I may never resolve all of the issues.  That's okay, it gives me something to strive for.  But I need to be careful to not pass along these errors to other researchers, as they may not realize these are errors, and may rely on them and spread them further!

I'm contemplating starting a new tree in another software, and being much more stringent about what data gets put in there, requiring much better documentation of myself.  I admit most of the errors in my data are from sloppy research and poor or lacking documentation at an earlier stage of my genealogical hobby, and it will take me a lot of work to get it fixed.  For you people new to genealogy, this is why some of the oldsters harp on citations and documentation all the time, they want to spare you the chore of going back over your data to fix the problems and fill in the holes later.

52 weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Weather

Week 18. Weather. Do you have any memorable weather memories from your childhood? How did your family cope and pass the time with adverse weather? When faced with bad weather in the present day, what do you do when you’re stuck at home?


My weather memories are mostly of winter.  I grew up in Minnesota.  We had snow.  And cold.  And sometimes both, although when it's cold enough, it doesn't snow much.  Not enough moisture in the air.

I remember a lot of winters with heavy snowfall amounts, where we started wondering where we would put the next batch to fall, as we were already shoveling it higher than we could easily reach.  Well, I was pretty short, so it may have seemed deeper to me, but I do remember large piles of snow everywhere as it was cleared from driveways and sidewalks and parking lots.  We used to dig tunnels in the parking lot snow hills for play forts. 

Except one year.  If I remember correctly, it was the winter of 1976/77.  It was bitterly cold most of that winter, and never snowed more than a couple of inches at a time.  And by bitterly cold, I mean -40 to -60 before looking at windchill.  Now, Minnesota often sees short bits of that kind of cold most winters, but that year seemed like weeks of mostly that kind of cold.  We learned how to dress in many layers, and to keep any skin covered, as temperatures that low are very quickly dangerous to exposed skin.

We also have interesting weather in the summer.  We're at the north end of Tornado Alley, but being at the end, we still get our share of them, sometimes deadly.  It's not unusual to hear the sirens going off during a storm.  In fact, it seems more frequent now than it did when I was growing up!  But that's probably because they sound them when radar shows a strong possibility of a tornado, instead of waiting for someone to spot a funnel cloud.

Spring, our current season, is rather volatile in Minnesota.  Our geographic location seems to cause unstable weather patterns that feature many grey, rainy days with scattered sunny days in between.  Just as it looks like the weather is turning into a nice spring, a new round of rainy blah will strike to put a damper on everything.  If you wanted to get in an early campout, you're going to have trouble finding a stretch of nice weather in which to do it.  And the temperatures are also unstable, going from freezing to hot in the same day, sometimes, but definitely within the same week.  You can get up in the morning to see frost on the ground, scrape your car windows before the drive to work, and wear a winter coat, only to come home with all of the windows open or the air conditioner on, and a short sleeved shirt.

It's not safe to plant your garden too early here, as a late spring snow is all too possible.  In fact, tonight's forecast is calling for frost, at the end of April.  So we wait, and have a shorter growing season.  That tends to limit some of the things we can reasonably grow in our gardens.  Farms tend to be mostly corn and soybeans, with some potatoes, wheat, and sugar beets to the west along the Red River. 

First frost tends to happen in mid-September, although if it's a light frost the gardens may continue to grow for a bit.  But we find by early-to-mid October that everything is pretty much shutting down in preparation for the coming winter.  It's not unusual to have snow on or before Halloween, although it doesn't usually stay until mid November.  Fall tends to be much like spring, unstable with many grey, rainy days.  By early December, we're definitely in the grip of the coming winter, and we start the cycle all over again.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Military Record

A recent arrival in the mail makes Estel E. Dillman (my paternal grandfather) easily the best documented of any of my relatives.  I received his military service record from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO.

I've wanted to do this for a long time, but never got around to actually following through the whole process.  Recently, I decided I should do this sooner, rather than later, in case some disaster in St. Louis might remove the record forever from access, such as the fire that destroyed the 1890 US Census records.  So I hit the eVetRecs website, looked up the record, and placed the request using the SF-180 form.  A couple of weeks later, I got notification that the records had been located and were available, and that a copy would be $60.00.  Well, I was unemployed at the time, and $60 would definitely be of more use in other areas, so I declined to order.  However, my folks agreed it would be a good idea to have a copy of the records, so they paid the fee and ordered the copy.

It took a few more weeks before the records arrived, and I began to see why it was so expensive.  The postage cost alone was nearly $8.00.  The copy sent is nearly a full ream of paper, all copied single-side.  The original records are no doubt, at least in part, on both sides, so would not occupy quite so much paper.

This is the full Navy Service Record of my grandfather, including medical and dental, of a service that lasted over 10 years in two separate blocks.  All of his schools are detailed.  All of his duty stations are noted, including many that I was never aware of, some of them short-term, for schools and such.  Advancement is detailed, and quarterly evaluation marks are all listed.  Medical and dental records include physical descriptions including tattoos and birthmarks, hair and eye color, height and weight, and so on.  Excellent stuff for genealogists!

I'll be scanning the entire record, thanks to a friend with a sheet-fed scanner.  I'll be posting example pages as well so you can see what is included, and perhaps be persuaded to order your own family members' service records.

Treasure Chest Thursday – create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family. A special thanks to Leslie Ann Ballou of Lost Family Treasures for suggesting Treasure Chest Thursday as a daily blogging theme!  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)

Teen Makes Database of Arlington National Cemetery

This article in the Los Angeles Times has all of the details, so I'll just provide the link.  This is a boon for anyone buried in Arlington!

Wordless Wednesday - Estel E. Dillman

Estel E. Dillman Eng2c, 1929

Wordless Wednesday – a great way to share your old family photos! Create a post with the main focus being a photograph or image. Some posters also include attribute information as to the source of the image (date, location, owner, etc.). Wordless Wednesday is one of the longest running “memes” in the blogosphere and is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.

Maritime Monday - Navy Log Pictures Pt. 5

My grandfather was first enlisted from 1927-1931.  He sailed aboard the USS Sloat, which was decomissioned during this period, and then moved to USS Upshur.  I've mentioned both of those ships before. 


But my grandfather also served during World War 2, aboard the USS Brooklyn.  He actually re-enlisted in October of 1939, prior to the US entry into the war, due to economic conditions in South Dakota at the time.  The Depression was in full swing, and farming wasn't going very well, so he enlisted for training as a diesel mechanic, what would now be called a Machinists Mate, unless they've changed the rating names again. 

USS Brooklyn (CL-40) circa 1939

This photograph was in Estel's logbook, but not mounted to any page.  It was merely enclosed loose, between other pages.  It was the only such loose photo in the book.  It's also unusual in that it's rather poorly focused.  Most Navy stock ship photos like this are made from the best quality negatives as Public Relations material, and are usually very sharp and clear.

Estel's brother (Orville) Wayne Dillman also served aboard the USS Brooklyn for a while.  The Navy at the time had a policy that separated siblings, but it was not strictly enforced.  The loss during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal of the USS Juneau carrying all five sons of the Sullivan family lead to absolute enforcement of the policy from that point onward.

On a lighter note, here are a few more comics that were included in the logbook.  These are a little racier, something one might not expect from comics, but actually fairly common in those days. They're not explicit, just somewhat suggestive.  While on that subject, there are a few photos in the album from Estel's port visit in Samoa.  A number of these show topless native girls, which was apparently the norm among Samoan natives at the time.  I've not posted those, nor do I think I will, as current culture might even consider some of them to be indecent at least.  Grandma commented on those pictures at one point, saying the nudity didn't bother her, as that was the normal state of dress for those people.  Some friends and acquaintances who saw the pictures were somewhat shocked by them, apparently.  Apparently Grandma had a pretty open mind.

Maritime Monday – Post about anything to do with the sea: ancestors who were sailors, shipwrights, fishermen, or coastguards including images, records and links. Maritime Monday is an ongoing series created by Ros Haywood at the GenWestUK blog.   (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers.)

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Restaurants

Week #16 – Restaurants

Week 16. Restaurants. What was your favorite local restaurant as a child? Where was it located, and what was your favorite meal? Did you know the staff personally? What is your favorite restaurant now?

Wow.  I'm not sure what my favorite restaurant(s) were as  a child.  I think it was just enough of a treat to be able to go out to eat that I was happy with most places we went.  If they were entertaining for kids, then so much the better.  I remember visiting most of the major fast food chains in the upper midwest at one time or another.  I do remember the french fries being so much better than they are now, but those days of lard-fried potatoes are long gone.

Being unemployed for almost 2 years, and now still underemployed, I don't get to eat at restaurants very often, and it's a treat when I do.  I enjoy eating at Applebees, as the service in the local one is excellent and the food has also always been good.  I also enjoy a trip to Bonanza for a steak.  I know some of the staff there, since my brother-in-law is one of the managers there, and one of the other managers has been there since I worked there as a teen.  The local Bonanza is excellent, and rated as one of the top of that chain in the world.  Their salad bar is excellent!

When I'm on the go and just have to stop quickly for something, I tend to pick McDonalds if I'm looking for rock bottom price, or Wendy's if I'm looking for something other than a burger.  Yeah, I like Wendy's chicken sandwiches, a taste I developed when working for the chain when I was young.

One last special treat is a local small burger and fries take-out place called Val's.  It's a little hole-in-the-wall place with no seating at all.  You come in, place your order on one of three touch-screen units, and stand for a few minutes while they prepare your order.  Or, if you prefer, you can phone your order in and it will be ready when you arrive.  Val's Rapid Serv is primarily known for one thing: Fries.  These fries are better than any of the fast food chains.  They're thin cut, crispy, like McDonalds, but then they are treated with a sprinkling of seasoned salt to make them stand out.  Oh, and Val's is generous with the fries.  When you order, your burgers get placed on the bottom of the bag.  Then your fries get placed on top of the burgers.  Then they dump in more fries.  And that's just a small order.  I don't know anyone who's single-handedly consumed an entire large order of Val's fries.  I've seen a family do it.  It's a good thing the burgers are smallish - you won't be able to eat a bigger burger after eating your way down to it through the fries...

What are/were your favorite restaurants?   Comment below, or write your own blog article and post the link below.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Genea-Wishes

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has another mission for us this week:

It's Saturday Night again - time for lots more Genealogy FUN!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Think of the genealogy related wishes you have - what education, database, or information would make your genealogy research dreams come true?  Be specific - as many wishes as you want to list!

2)  Tell us about some of your genea-wishes in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.


My wishes are fairly simple at this point, as I've not come close to exhausting the available databases.  I merely wish I could afford the subscriptions to all of the databases I need.  A good start would be Ancestry.com, as I've netted some data on their freebie events, and I know there's more in there I haven't had access to.  I'd also wish for free access (or money to afford access) to all of the state and national archives so I could purchase hardcopy of all of the records I wanted. 

Alas, as the economy has soured, such copies have become a more important source of revenue, and the pricing has gone up in a number of cases.  A single Social Security SS-5 is now $27.00, and most state records are $9.00 or so, and I need enough of them that it is cost prohibitive.  I recently ordered a copy of my paternal grandfather's military service record, which will cost me a hefty $60.00.  Not something I can afford for each of my male relatives who were in the services.  So I stick to mainly digital images of the documents I can find, which has the added benefit of not generating more paper.

Another wish would be for more hours in the day to actually do the searching and retrieval of those records...

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Sports

Week #15 – Sports

Week 15. Sports. Did you have a favorite sports team as a child? If so, which one and why. Did your parents follow the same teams? Do you still support the same teams?

This challenge runs from Saturday, April 9, 2011 through Friday, April 15, 2011.

This is very late, as week 15 was a couple of weeks ago.  I'm recovering from my cold and new job training, so I can actually get to writing the post...

I was never a big sports guy.  In fact, growing up, I was always the little guy, picked last or nearly so.  I only got involved in organized team sports once, when I played flag football in 5th grade.  Obviously being the little guy, I didn't play line.  I was at halfback, where I could use my speed to carry the ball.  I wasn't all that good at it anyway, and that year was enough to convince me I wasn't a football player.

I don't tend to watch sports on TV much, either.  I'd rather watch in person, and can't afford to do that often either.  My father is the sports nut of the family.  He's always watching something, now that cable has many sports channels.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Pets

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

• Week 17. Pets. Did you have any pets as a child? If so, what types and what were their names. Do you have pets now? Describe them as well. If you did not have pets, you can discuss those of neighbors or other family members.

The first pet I remember was a cat named Cigar.  I have very little memory of  her, as she died in 1972 when I was six years old. 

Angel

Next we got a pekingese/terrier cross and named her Angel.  Angel was my dog, growing up, and she was with us for a long time.  I'm not generally a fan of small breed dogs, but Angel was mine.  She liked to run, and could run faster than me until I grew enough that my legs got longer.  She generally roamed the neighborhood if she got out, but later she would respond and come when called. One day my parents came home to find Angel on the front steps with one eye hanging out.  We never knew how that happened, but we took her to the vet.  He removed the eye, and Angel lived the last several years of her life with only one eye. 

Buckets

My then-fiance moved into her own place and got a dog from the Humane Society.  She named him Buckets, and he was an adorable big lug.  Everyone loved that dog, and they still talk about him.  Unfortunately, Buckets developed leukemia and died at about 3 years old.












After that, I left when I enlisted in the Navy.  Once my new wife and I got settled, we got an aquarium (I've had freshwater aquariums since I was in high school) and birds.  I got a cockatiel named Peepers from someone who was bringing him to the Humane Society to get rid of him.  I saw them bringing him in his cage, and asked if they were giving him up.  They said yes, and I said I was looking for a bird, so they handed me the cage.  Win-win!  Peepers lived with me for the next 15 years or more.  He was raised as a hand-fed baby, and therefore was tolerant of being held, or perching on my shoulder. 

We enjoyed the social nature of the hand fed babies, so got some lovebird babies and raised them by hand as well.  Fed a mix of soaked dog food-like pellets in a mush, from a syringe.  The babies bond to who feeds them from a very early age, so they become very attached pets if you go that route.  But be aware, many birds love a very long time, some as much as 75 years or more.  It's not uncommon to find exotic birds being willed to descendants if they outlive their owners.

Shadow

In addition, we got several pairs of Zebra Finches.  They're quite entertaining, and much less work as they remain caged and all you do is maintain that environment.  They're small birds, and very prolific breeders.  We sold their babies back to the pet store, which gave us store credit enough to keep the pets all paid for in food and other stuff.

We also got a dog, Zook.  He was a mixed breed, I forget which.  He was a really fun dog most of the time, but he had a quirky nature and could become aggressive at times.  We eventually put him down after he bit our firstborn son.  We also got another dog, a husky/Shepherd mix we named Shadow.  We found Shadow at a mall pet store, and I fell in love with her immediately.  She was adorable, and looked very much the Husky with blue eyes. Shadow lived with us for a long time, and died at the respectable age of 15 of a chronic bowel obstruction.  I still miss her, she was my buddy.

Ruby

After Shadow, I was not interested in getting another pet.  But my family had other ideas, and within a year or so we were visiting the Humane Society (sense a running theme here?) looking for a new friend to bring home.  We looked at a bunch of dogs (there's a cat allergy in the family, so no cats here...) and finally got down to two, sisters.  They were a Shepherd/Sheltie mix, one black, one Shepherd tan & black.  The black one was named Betty, and was extremely pregnant, and the other was Ruby.  Both were 8 months old, and the Humane Society folks told us there was a strong possibility that Betty was pregnant by her father or brother.  Well.  Betty was actually much more outgoing and affectionate, but Ruby was also nice.  How to choose?  Long story short, we took both, including the pregnant Betty, who we renamed Sapphire to go with her sister Ruby.  The condition was that we would not keep the coming litter, but would raise them until weaned, then return them to the Humane Society for adoption.  We reasoned that this would be a wonderful learning experience for the kids, and we just couldn't decide between the dogs.

Betty/Sapphire

 

Puppies are a bundle of fun, but also a bunch of work!  They're very messy.  I'm glad, in hindsight, that we decided to get both dogs and do the puppy thing, and the kids really enjoyed the process as well.  Sapphire delivered a littler of 11 pups, of which 9 were alive.  One of those later died at about 5 weeks old, so we ended up delivering 8 puppies back to the Humane Society.  We told family all about it, and three of the puppies ended up being adopted by family where we can still visit them.  They never forget their first people, and get very excited anytime we go to see them.

Sapphire developed the same chronic bowel obstruction that Shadow had, and passed away at age 5.  Ruby is still with us, and has grown into a wonderful companion, very affectionate and responsive.

Sapphire and puppies

Open Thread Thursday - Copyright

I realize I'm a day late (and probably a dollar short), but here's my little contribution:

This week’s topic for Open Thread Thursday is:

Have you ever encountered a situation involving copyright issues when either posting about your genealogy research, using research resources, etc.?

Have you ever had to send a “cease and desist” notice to someone violating your copyright?

Have you ever had questions as to whether an item was copyrighted or the copyright was still in effect?

What about orphaned works (where you can’t determine the copyright owner)?

Have you ever had another researcher refuse to share information due to copyright concerns?

Post your responses in the comments or at a post on your own genealogy blog and place the link here in the comments.

 

I have yet to discover someone using my content without my permission.  Since I've only been blogging since this past January, I haven't really written all that much yet, so I'm not surprised no one has plagiarized my stuff yet.  Will it eventually happen?  Probably.  If only because there are so many unscrupulous individuals out there trying to game the system by scraping blogs and reposting so they can include ads and other such to make money.

I'd rather no one made money on my writing except possibly me.  I recently posted about how I'm not even making any money at this, and it's really not my main goal anyway, but it would put a smile on my face to be able to bring in enough to maybe pay for an Ancestry subscription or something.  I'm not looking to be a professional blogger.

I have experience in the area of copyright.  I was a photographer in the US Navy, and had a few photos printed on the cover of the base newspaper on occasion.  Those are copyrighted images.  Due to the terms of military service, the Navy essentially owns the copyrights, or at least license to use the images.  I still do some photography, and I've posted some of the images to my Flickr account where it would be relatively easy for someone to scrape the images to use elsewhere.  I've specifically chosen a Creative Commons Attribution non-commercial share-alike license for those images.  This means others are free to copy them and use them for non-commercial purposes as long as they attribute the work to me.  Again, the only one who should be making money from my work is me.

So far, I've not seen any of my work used elsewhere.  So I've never had to serve a Cease & Desist letter, nor have I had one served on me.  I try very hard not to use other people's stuff without permission.  I know I've undoubtedly slipped up at some point, but that would be an exception rather than the rule. 

As far as questions of whether an item is in copyright or not, there are endless discussions on what is covered and what is not out on the web.  Basically, if it's pre-1923, it's public domain and freely usable.  After that, it gets complicated, and I avoid using material for which I cannot readily determine copyright status.  In many cases, what I would want to use would be images, and being photographically inclined, I just make my own images as needed.  In other cases, such as obituaries, they would fall under Fair Use, as they are a small excerpt of the full newspaper from which they came. 

I've also never had anyone refuse to share information due to a copyright issue.  In most cases, people are not aware of, or do not understand, copyright issues, so they don't even think about it when sharing information.  It's much more likely in my experience that someone would refuse to share because they are data hoarders.

I'm not sure if this has been a hot-button issue for the genealogy community lately, or it was just an interesting topic for an Open Thread Thursday.  Either way, copyright is an important issue.  A person should have the right to say how their work is used.  But should their children, or grandchildren have that same say?  Walt Disney's descendants would answer that question in a very particular way.  Most of us would probably say no.  I'll let you do your own reading about public domain and how it affects our culture and creativity, and form your own opinions.  It's an interesting debate, which is definitely affected by money.

What about you?  How would you answer the questions posed for this week's Open Thread Thursday?   Comment below, or in your own blog, and put the link up so others can follow along!

Follow Friday - Genealogy For Kids

This Friday, I'm recommending you follow Jennifer Holik-Urban's Genealogy For Kids blog. 

Yes, I've already recommended her blog in a previous Follow Friday. 

Still, I very often find myself reading the posts on this blog that is supposedly "for kids", and finding that the tips and suggestions are very valid for any genealogy researcher, not just kids.  It just happens to be phrased in a way that makes it easier for kids to comprehend and use.  She frequently adds links to forms or databases kids can use (which usually means free) to start their own family trees.  I've made use of several of these in the recent past.

If you saw the "For Kids" part and thought it wasn't worth checking out, I urge you to reconsider and take a look.  Even if you don't use it yourself, you might know a young person who is interested in family history.  Indeed, kids are our future, as genealogists should well know!  The more we get them interested and involved now, the more likely they will continue the tradition later in life.

Follow Friday – create a post in which you recommend another genealogy blogger, a specific blog post, a genealogy website or a genealogy resource. Tell us why they are important to the genealogy community and why we should follow.  Follow Friday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers and was suggested by Earline Bradt of Ancestral Notes.   (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)