Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks -- December 13 to December 19
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

Bobby Family Tree suggests using Skype as a genealogy tool. Naturally, using Skype as a method of 'cold-calling' potential relatives doesn't work with more common surnames. And not everyone would be comfortable sending even an 'instant message' to a complete stranger. But technology is producing multiple ways of tracking down relatives.

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star discusses FamilySearch's Community Trees

Craig Manson at GeneaBlogie begins to contribute his views on a discussion of Standards and Certification, which he promises to continue in later posts. Raised in a legal family, I like the mock-courtroom dialogue he presents.

Thomas MacEntee at Destination: Austin Family won a 19th century diary on Ebay. The diary wasn't of anyone related, but he still bid on the auction, and he explains why. He also asks for input on how best to transcribe and share it.

In April, St. Joseph, MO will celebrate the 150th anniversary of The Pony Express

NARAtions provides The Real Scoop About Name Changes in Immigration Records. I can't imagine a more authoritative source than the National Archives for debunking the popular family myth of names being changed by US Immigration Officials.

Vickie Everhart at BeNotForgot shares a Christmas poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings looks at the timelines created by OurTimeLines

Google has recently released some Translation and Transliteration tools. I noticed that out of the 17 languages for which they are providing transliterations, Hebrew isn't on the list. Perhaps it will be the 18th.

The Jewish History Channel has an entry on Claiming Descent from the Maccabees. On why some consider it similar to claiming descent from George Washington...and others don't.

Taking the Mystery out of Copyright, a website presented by the Library of Congress, and aimed towards children. (hat/tip: MoSGA Messenger)

Here are three other lists of genealogy-related links of interest from fellow genea-bloggers:

• Apple's Weekly Rewind at Apple's Tree
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Bloggers at Genea-Musings
• Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogical Round-Up at Megan's Roots World