Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks --July 18 to July 24
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings looks at the maps and other information provided by FamilySearch's England Jurisdictions 1851.  As he points out, the URL is a generic: maps.familysearch.org.  So while currently the title of the subdomain is "England Jurisdictions 1851," that could become more generic in the future, if FamilySearch has, or develops plans for more maps.

Randy also reminds us about the New Genealogy Message Searcher Chris Dunham at The Genealogue created in 2007.  It still works, and is still useful.  Though, arguably, it is no longer "new."

Linda Hall-Little at Passages to the Past illustrates how the American Genealogical Biographical Index can be useful, and lead you places Google Books and The Internet Archive won't lead you to on their own.

Digital Content Quarterly issue #3 has been released, with articles on The Internet Archive, Wikipedia, and more.  (hat/tip: Digitization 101)

Katherine at NARAtions discusses the records kept by the Department of State on the Overseas Deaths of US Citizens. The records from 1963-1974 are available at Ancestry.com, and prior to 1963 can be ordered from the National Archives.  (Unless the deceased was active military personnel, in which case the death was reported to the Department of Defense)

Dick Eastman at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter discusses Google's entry into the E-book market with Google Editions.

After World War II, Jewish emigres in France were encouraged by the state to Frenchify their surname.  Many descendants now want to change them back. (hat/tip: JewishGen Blog)

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, at The Huffington Post writes Don't Protect Us From Our Own Genetic Information - arguing against expansion of FDA regulation of Direct-to-Consumer DNA tests.

I like how Tom Kemp at the official GenealogyBank Blog responds regularly to user mail.  This week he helped a reader find a newspaper article, illustrating that searches on surname only are the way to go, if the surname is unique enough.

Justin at The Footnote Blog announces their Interactive Slave Records Collection formed through a partnership between Footnote and Lowcountry Africana.

LineageKeeper at FamHist reminds us that faulty memories can impact the information on death certificates.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti at Tracing the Tribe writes of her trip to the 7th Sephardic Bnai Anousim Conference.  (Bnai Anousim are the descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism due to the Spanish inquisition)

A Scottish author is seeking the descendants of the 6,500 Lost Boys.

Other Weekly Lists
The genealogy bloggers below provide their selections for the week - many different from my own.

• Best of the Genea-Blogs - from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

• Follow Friday - from Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

• Genealogy Round Up - from Megan Smolenyak² at Megan's Roots World

• Monday's Link Roundup - from Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian

• New Genealogy Blogs and Upcoming Genealogy Blogging Events - from Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers

Amanuensis Monday: July 19th participants
[Amanuensis Monday is a weekly blogging theme I began in February of 2009, where participants transcribe letters, audio, and other documents.]

"anonymous" at Family History Writing
Sherry Stocking Kline at Family Tree Writer 
"anonymous" at filioagnostic
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings
 Leah at The Internet Genealogist 
"anonymous" at Nolichucky Roots 
Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy
Lisa Wallen Logsdon at Old Stones Undeciphered
Martin Hollick at The Slovak Yankee 
"anonymous" at So That's Where I Get it From
John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch
Bill West at West in New England
 Kevin Walker at Who We Were, Are & Will Be Our Family

If you participated, but don't appear on this list, please, let me know.