Top 10 Genealogy/Family Tree Blogs
"Where did I come from?" is one of the most basic human questions, and the Web's gradual connection of databases and communities of interest makes it ever easier to learn the answers. These blogs help amateur genealogists enter and understand the world of ancestor-hunting and help you navigate toward your family's past.
Helps explain and expand on Ancestry.com's databases of births, deaths, election rolls and Social Security records. A good first stop if you have an ancestor to search for and want some background on how to track that person down.
Miriam Robbins Midkiff blogs about searching for her far-flung family, and in the process helps you search for yours. Also covers developments in census and other databases plus other genealogically significant news.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe collects and comments on genealogical news from the field: Who were Darwin's ancestors? Are George Stephanopoulos and Hillary Clinton related? How are advances in genomics aiding amateur and professional genealogists?
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
Genealogy enthusiast and old-school computer guy Dick Eastman blogs about the intersection of information technology and genealogy. Particularly follows the states' efforts to open or restrict access to their birth, death, marriage and other databases.
Web site of the leading family-history magazine features seminars, podcasts and news about the field. Also features links to Diane Haddad's Genealogy Insider blog, which interprets and humanizes the main site's news with some help from Family Tree staff.
"Lineage keeper" Lee Drew spins entertaining tales up and down the branches of his family tree, some of which he's traced back 10 generations to the Netherlands during the 1500s. Links to other helpful resources including wikis and databases.
Puts genomics to work for amateur and professional genealogists by covering the science and business of sequencing DNA. Essential reading if you're interested in not just who your ancestors were, but what they were (Walloons? Sephardim? Uighurs?) and by extension, what you are.
You wouldn't think walking through graveyards would be so popular, but Graveyard Rabbit links dozens if not hundreds of groups that do just that throughout the U.S. Also links to Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal's thoughtful essays that put graves and cemeteries into cultural and genealogical context.
Bookseller and amateur genealogist Bill West tells the tales of his Yankee ancestors, which gets particularly interesting in the 1680s as their Massachusetts town is repeatedly attacked by Indians. An interesting example of how fully an ancestry might be traced.
Donna Pointkouski's general-interest genealogy blog divides its time between recent family memories, deep looks at her Polish and Bavarian roots, and genealogically related travel. Also links to the author's online articles, most of which offer tips and how-tos.
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