Tombstone Tuesday: Seen in Southern Illinois

My wife and I explored Southern Illinois this weekend - stopping at several of the hiking paths and other sites along the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. In the Alto Pass area, we spotted the below tombstone.

We had to stop to take a picture, but we didn't ask directions.

If anyone is interested in a similar exploration, I can recommend a bed and breakfast to spend the night. The accomodations at Von Jakob are very comfortable, the food is excellent, and they have a nice selection of wine, beer, and mead to taste.

A Year Ago Today

This is a picture of Jen and myself a year ago today, on April 22nd, 2012.

It's amazing how quickly a year goes by.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.

Song of Solomon 2:16

Weekly Genealogy Picks - Changes

Using the "Share Page" at TheOldReader, I have simplified for me the process of sharing posts I find which I feel may be of interest to others.

Every post I share will appear here:

TransylvanianDutch Weekly/Daily Picks

• This page has an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to it and receive every post I share, when I share it.
• If you have a TheOldReader account, you can 'follow' it instead, and it will appear separately from your other subscriptions.
• Or you can bookmark the page and stop by whenever you wish and see my latest selections
• I have a list of the five most recent shared posts on the left sidebar, along with a link to the page.
• I can connect the page to Facebook, through a setting in TheOldReader, and it will be shared there as well. I'm not doing this, but it is an option.
• I will only be sharing items I think will be of interest in the same categories I was already sharing posts on this blog. TheOldReader has both a "Share" and a "Like" feature, so I have  a different method of bookmarking posts of personal interest to me.

Downsides:

• I will not be able to share anything that doesn't appear in an RSS feed to which I currently subscribe. This mostly means news articles.
• If you don't have a TheOldReader account, the page includes the full posts that are shared, so if you bookmark the page, you will probably have to scroll through posts you don't wish to read. (If you do have a TheOldReader account, and simply bookmark the page, the posts will appear in a collapsible format which will be easier to scroll through.)
• If you subscribe to the feed, you should be able to skip over posts in the same way you normally would with whatever news reader you use.
• Many of those who subscribe to the feed will see duplicate posts - the first one by the original blogger, and then my share of it. Mine may often include a line or two of commentary. 

Upsides:

• I think this will free up about an hour on my weekends I can spend actually conducting genealogy research, composing original content for this blog, or other activities.

If  you were utilizing my Calendar of Upcoming Holidays, you may find: The Interfaith Calendar of interest. That is where I was getting my list of religious holidays.

Two Poems for Today - April 19

The Midnight Ride of William Dawes - by Helen F Moore (1896)

I am a wandering, bitter shade,
Never of me was a hero made;
Poets have never sung my praise,
Nobody crowned my brow with bays;
And if you ask me the fatal cause,
I answer only, “My name was Dawes.”

‘Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear –
My name was Dawes and his Revere.

When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,
Paul Revere was waiting about,
But I was already on my way.
The shadows of night fell cold and gray
As I rode, with never a break or a pause;
But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!

History rings with his silvery name;
Closed to me are the portals of fame.
Had he been Dawes and I Revere,
No one had heard of him, I fear.
No one has heard of me because
He was Revere and I was Dawes.

***
Excerpt from Campo dei Fiori, by Czeslaw Milosz (1943)

I thought of the Campo dei Fiori
In Warsaw by the sky-carousel
One clear spring evening
To the strains of a carnival tune.
The bright melody drowned
The salvos from the ghetto wall,
And couples were flying
High in the cloudless sky.

(full poem)

April 19th is filled with historical events. 

Many Americans think of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  (Some erroneously place it on April 18th, but it was a midnight ride. The battles took place the next day.)

But this is also the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. The most recent edition of Tablet Magazine was devoted to Warsaw, including a haunting look at repurposed gravestones.

Note: According to this source William Dawes, who rode with Revere, was related to Henry L Dawes, for whom The Dawes Act was named.

Yom HaShoah / Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holoccaust Remembrance Day - the 27th Day of the Hebrew month of Nisan.

Contrary to some thought, the day was not chosen to correspond with the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising [Nisan 14]. There were some who suggested that as the date, but it would have coincided with Passover celebrations, and wouldn't have been appropriate. The 27th was chosen because it lay between Nisan 14 and Israeli Independence Day. Even though it was separated from Passover, many Orthodox Jews don't observe it because it still falls within the month of Nisan, when mourning is prohibited. [Source / Source]

Holocaust Butterfly from aahelpdesk

• A musical interpretation of the poem, The Butterfly

Some past posts:

• Central Database of Shoah Victims Names - Part I / Part II
• Terezin: Not Your Usual Honeymoon Destination

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 31 - April 6

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• James Tanner at Genealogy's Star discusses Equal Rights for Ancestors. Do our ancestors deserve to be treated equally, with equal amounts of research time devoted to them?

• Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider provides 10 Tips For Researching Genealogy in Court Records.

• Michele Simmons Lewis at Ancestoring's Ask A Genealogist compared the Old Search to the New Search at Ancestry.com in a three-part series. Parts: 1, 2, 3.

• The Missouri Secretary of State has announced that the State Archives is working with FamilySearch to create an online database of state marriage records from territorial times through 1969. (hat/tip: GenealogyBlog)

• Robert Darnton at The New York Review of Books looks at The Digital Public Library of America which is to be launched on April 18th. "The Digital Public Library of America, to be launched on April 18, is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans—and eventually to everyone in the world—online and free of charge."

• One April First, The Ancestry Insider asked Did Your Ancestor Fall Out of the Sky?

• Poetry: Donna Pointkouski at What's Past is Prologue shares her poem Where I'm From, based on the George Ella Lyon template. [Link to my 2009 post about the template]

Other Weekly Lists

• Genealogy News Corral - Diane Haddad - GenealogyInsider 
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog 
• Blog Posts for Genealogists - Michael J Leclerc - Mocavo Blog 
• Monday Morning Mentions - Lynn Palermo - Armchair Genealogist 
• Best of the Genea-Blogs - Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• April 7 - Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jewish) [ Sundown April 7 - Sundown April 8]
• April 7 - World Health Day
• April 8 - International Romani Day
• April 11 - New Year (Hindu)
• April 11 - Ramayana (Hindu) [April 11-20]
• April 12 - Yuri's Night
• April 14 - Baisakhi/New Year (Sikh)
• April 15 - Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Jewish) [Sundown April 15 - Sundown April 16]
• April 15 - Jackie Robinson Day
• April 15 - Patriots' Day (US) [For those observing it on the 3rd Monday of April] 
• April 19 - Dutch-American Friendship Day
• April 19 - Patriots' Day (US) [For those observing it on the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord]
• April 20 - Ramanavani (Hindu)
• April 21 - First Day of Ridvan (Baha'i)

Friday Five

Many years ago I started a series of posts I entitled, "Friday Five" based on the old internet meme of listing five random songs from your computer's playlist. Instead, I found five names in online genealogy databases that were related to each other thematically.

If you click on the category link below this post, you'll notice that most of the themes have been fun and lighthearted, however, today I said to myself, "Let's do a Friday Five," so I looked at the calendar to see if there were any holidays coming up, and I noticed Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) on Monday. A fan of Mel Brooks, I couldn't resist the opportunity. It is springtime after all.

My apologies to anyone who feels the below (or above) is at all inappropriate.
All of the below names were found in databases at Ancestry.com

***

1. Crystal Knot – 1900 US census – Age 9 – Shields, Lake, IL
2. Robert Auschwitz – 1920 US census – Age 3 – St. Louis, MO
3. George Hashoas – 1885 Nebraska state census – Age 2 – Friend, Saline, NE
4. Celia Kaddish – 1911 UK census – Age 4 – Yorkshire-West Riding
5. Gay Hitler – 1910 US census – Age 28 – Pickaway Ohio

***

According to my quick research Gay Ludwig Hitler graduated from Kenyon College in 1905, was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and became a dentist. He died in 1928.

There’s no photograph of the tombstone on FindAGrave, but there is a photograph of the entrance to Hitler-Ludwig Cemetery in Circleville, Ohio.

Data Backup Day: Accidents Happen; Be Prepared

The first day of every month is Data Backup Day.

Accidents have been known to happen. We can't predict them, but we can be prepared for them.

Digitize your source materials, and back them up regularly.

Image Source: "The First Page," by Émile Bayard (1837-1891). An illustration for the novel, Ninety-three, by Victor Hugo.

Émile Bayard's best known illustration is his image of Cosette sweeping the floor of the inn, for the novel, Les Misérables.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 24-March 30

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Jon Platakis at The Lithuanian Tribune recently reported on the claim that Christopher Columbus was a Lithuanian Prince. (hat/tip: Stanczyk-Internet Muse)

• Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings provides a detailed response to a reader asking about the LDS Church's control over genealogy records.

• Thomas MacEntee at Destination: Austin Family wonders with respect to the recent Supreme Court discussions on Marriage Equality: What Would My Ancestors Think? This is a question family historians often have, as our political and religious views rarely match those of our ancestors on every issue.

• "Food is my sanctuary," writes Michael W Twitty at Afroculinaria in his post, "Passover: A Black-Jewish Food Musing."

• Stephen Baloglu at Ancestry Blog announces new features at Ancestry DNA including the ability to download raw DNA data which can be uploaded to other websites.

• At The Art of Genealogy Karin Hadden describes Finding Family Using Google Maps. This is a Google research technique I hadn't thought about yet.

Other Weekly Lists

• Genealogy News Corral - Diane Haddad - GenealogyInsider 
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog 
• Blog Posts for Genealogists - Michael J Leclerc - Mocavo Blog 
• Monday Morning Mentions - Lynn Palermo - Armchair Genealogist 
• Best of the Genea-Blogs - Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• March 31 - Easter (Christian)
• April 1 - April Fool's Day
• April 2 - World Autism Awareness Day
• April 6 - Tartan Day
• April 7 - Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jewish) [ Sundown April 7 - Sundown April 8]
• April 7 - World Health Day
• April 8 - International Romani Day
• April 11 - New Year (Hindu)
• April 11 - Ramayana (Hindu) [April 11-20]
• April 12 - Yuri's Night
• April 14 - Baisakhi/New Year (Sikh)

Politics, Religion, and Genealogy

There are some who think discussions of politics and religion don't belong on a genealogy blog, but I disagree. Politics and religion are hopelessly intertwined with family history research.

When I first began researching, I downloaded some research forms from a source that won't be named. I'm sure there are millions of similar forms out there. Below are two clippings from a "Family Group Sheet."

I knew instantly back in 2007 that if I were going to give the form to relatives to fill out, I would need to change at least one word. And I did change that word to, 'Naming.'

While that is the only word I changed back in 2007, looking at the form today, it does present other issues. How do I record a domestic partnership? A civil union? I have some friends who are participating in a handfasting later this year. They're not my relatives, but they are somebody's relatives. How would I record that? It would make things a lot easier if the same word was used for all unions, wouldn't it? There is power in a union.

Of course, the confusion doesn't end with different terms for different unions. Do I only include a space for the biological parents (which appear to be implied above), or should I include space for adopted parents as well? How do I handle a case where the parents received either a sperm or egg donation from a third party?

So, to those who insist that religion and politics be separated from genealogy, I ask: "How?"

A selection of prior posts concerning politics, religion and genealogy:

• Apathy is foreign to my genes
• Religion and Genealogy
• Baptisms by Proxy

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 17-23

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• The Signal at the Library of Congress has announced an e-publication entitled, "Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving." It is a collection of their blog posts on the topic. "This resource can serve as a primer for the digital archive novice, as well as a refresher for those with more experience."
• NPR looks at how photographs were faked prior to Photoshop. This reminded me of some prior looks at this topic which are now over a decade old, but still online: PBS's Digital Truth and Photographic Truth in a Digital Era from the Media Awareness Network.
• Philip Trauring at Blood and Frogs writes of Genealogical Red Herrings
• Elyse Doerflinger at Elyse's Genealogy Blog addresses the accusation that Young People aren't Interested in Genealogy.
• Johanna Carlson Draper at Comics Worth Reading highlights an intriguing upcoming graphic novel, Persia Blues. "Persia Blues is a character-driven slice of life tale, combining fantastical elements with contemporary politics, while exploring the universal themes of tradition, family, guilt, and freedom." Due out in May, and serialized online beforehand.
• Here's an entertaining, and educational video explaining the difference between Holland and The Netherlands (hat/tip: Mocavo Blog)

• Alexis Grant, guest posting at My Name is Not Bob dispels 3 SEO Myths That Scare Writers, providing some useful advice for bloggers, regardless of genre.

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth's Recommendations - Ruth Blair - The Passionate Genealogist 
• Genealogy News Corral: RootsTech 2013 Edition - Diane Haddad - GenealogyInsider 
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog 
• Monday Morning Mentions - Lynn Palermo - Armchair Genealogist 
• Best of the Genea-Blogs - Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• March 24 - Palm Sunday (Christian)
• March 24 - Orthodox Sunday (Orthodox Christian)
• March 25 - Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (Christian)
• March 25 - Pesach/Passover (Jewish) [Sundown March 25 - Sundown April 2]
• March 26 - Khordad Sal (Zoroastrian)
• March 27 - Magha Puja Day (Buddhist)
• March 27 - Lord's Evening Meal (Jehovah's Witness)
• March 27 - Holi (Hindu)
• March 27 - World Theatre Day
• March 28 - Maundy Thursday (Christian)
• March 28 - Hola Mohalla (Sikh)
• March 28 - Birth of Prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroastrian)
• March 29 - Good Friday (Christian)
• March 31 - Easter (Christian)
• April 1 - April Fool's Day
• April 2 - World Autism Awareness Day
• April 6 - Tartan Day
• April 7 - Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jewish) [ Sundown April 7 - Sundown April 8]

The Old Reader Works Some Serious Magic

It took a few days, but The Old Reader finally managed to handle the overload on its server from Google Reader users seeking a new home. I uploaded my Google Reader feed file on Thursday night. This morning I received an email that the import process had been completed, and all 378 of my feeds were processed. Their server speed is still a bit slow, but it's understandable. As of March 18th, their user base had grown 12-fold. They've announced that they are exploring a freemium model, but the free plan will keep its current functionality.

As I looked at the feeds, my jaw dropped in shock. I asked myself if it was Easter morning, because the dead were rising from the grave.

When one follows several hundred blogs, if blog posts from any single blog stop showing up in your inbox, you might mourn the loss of the content, but you might not actively seek out where the blogger has moved.  Even if it is as simple as visiting the website and seeing if they made a small change to their RSS feeds, you might not go to the trouble. Some people might clear out the dead feeds, but others would just let them be - you never know when the blogger might reeturn.

Without identifying the blogs in question:

• In one case, the blog feed URL had moved from

www.domainA.com/rss/newfeed.xml to www.domainA.com/feed

• In another case, the blog feed URL moved from

www.domainB.com/blog/atom.xml to www.domainB.com/feed

But I suppose since the blogs were still at the same top-level domain, The Old Reader found it.

In both cases, Google Reader stopped displaying the posts over a year ago.
When I imported the feeds to NetVibes, NetVibes reported them as 404s.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 10-16

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Michele Simmons at Ancestoring provides some tips on More Effective Searches

• In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider suggests Six Irish Genealogy Websites

• Michael J. Leclerc at Mocavo Blog has dealt with several genealogical myths this week, including: Coats of Arms, The Indian Princess, and All The Records Burned in a Fire.

• Tess Webre at Digital Preservation shares a possible bedtime story for children: Snow Byte and the Seven Formats: A Digital Preservation Fairy Tale.

• There was White Smoke at the Vatican this week, and the world has a new Pope.  Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist discussed The Laws of the Church and how canon law can impact genealogy.

• Nina Strochlic at The Daily Beast shares the story of An Auschwitz Survivor Searching For His Twin on Facebook

• Google announced this week that their app, Google Reader, only has a little bit more than three months left to live. This news sent ripples across the internet as devoted fans were stunned.

• In Good Bye iGoogle, Good Bye Reader, Good Bye Usefulness James Tanner at Genealogy's Star wonders what app Google will decide to retire next.

• Frederic Lardinois at TechCrunch believes it might be Google's other RSS product, FeedBurner.

• Levi Sumagaysay at Good Morning Silicon Valley discusses the lesson Google's announcement teaches us: "how easily important tools can be taken away from us at any moment, and it might be a good time to think about backups to the services we rely on the most."

• Jonathan Bailey at Plagiarism Today looked at the announcement from the viewpoint of what this means to the professional blogger, and whether we need to rethink our RSS strategy. 

• Several Tech websites have offered suggestions on alternative RSS readers, including: Macgasm, LifeHacker, and c/net. The social news website, Digg, has announced they're going to build a new RSS reader.

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth's Recommendations - Ruth Blair - The Passionate Genealogist 
• Genealogy News Corral - Diane Haddad - GenealogyInsider 
• Notable Genealogy Blog Posts - Michael Hait - Planting the Seeds 
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog 
• Monday Morning Mentions - Lynn Palermo - Armchair Genealogist 
• Best of the Genea-Blogs - Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
• March 17 - Cheesefare Sunday (Orthodox Christian)
• March 18 - Lent Begins (Orthodox Christian)
• March 19 - Saint Joseph's Day (Christian)
• March 20 - Ostara (northern hemisphere) Mabon (southern hemisphere) (Pagan)
• March 21 - New Year (Baha'i)
• March 21 - New Year (Persian/Zoroastrian)
• March 24 - Palm Sunday (Christian)
• March 24 - Orthodox Sunday (Orthodox Christian)
• March 25 - Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (Christian)
• March 25 - Pesach/Passover (Jewish) [Sundown March 25 - Sundown April 2]
• March 26 - Khordad Sal (Zoroastrian)
• March 27 - Magha Puja Day (Buddhist)
• March 27 - Lord's Evening Meal (Jehovah's Witness)
• March 27 - Holi (Hindu)
• March 27 - World Theatre Day
• March 28 - Maundy Thursday (Christian)
• March 28 - Hola Mohalla (Sikh)
• March 28 - Birth of Prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroastrian)
• March 29 - Good Friday (Christian)
• March 31 - Easter (Christian)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Every year on St. Patrick's Day I've blogged about the Irish ancestry of my great grandfather, Barney Newmark.

He wrote a bio of himself for a "Who's Who" of local businessmen claiming to be a native of Dublin, even though he was almost certainly born on the outskirts of Warsaw, in Warka, Poland. He celebrated his birthday on March 17th, though some documents state he was born on March 25th, and others state April 14th. I shared my Irishness with a friend back in 2007, and he looked Barney up in the 1930 US Census, and sent me a link. I've long been interested in my ancestry, but I had done no research, and had no idea what was available online. And here I am six years later.

While my Irish ancestry may be somewhat mythological, my wife's isn't. According to some sources, her 3rd great grandfather, Thomas Muldoon, was born in Ireland in 1817, in County Fermanagh.









Past St. Patrick's Day posts

March 17, 2012: Happy 126th Birthday to my Great Grandfather
March 17, 2011: Happy St. Patrick's Day
March 17, 2010: Barney's Birthday and Birthplace
March 17, 2009: On St. Patrick's Day Everyone is Irish
March 17, 2008: My 'Irish' Great Grandfather
March 15, 2007: Corned Beef and Cabbage on Rye

Group Photographs

I recommended the photo for this week's Sepia Saturday prompt. It comes from the Harry Truman Library - and I found it browsing through the Missouri Digital Heritage website. It's an unusual group photo. Most group photos are from the front, but here we get to see everyone's backs, as they pose for a more traditional photograph in front of the press. The photograph was taken on July 17, 1945, the day after the atom bomb was tested in New Mexico. Truman had written on the back of the photograph, "This is the place I told Stalin about the Atom bomb, which was exploded July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. He didn't realize what I was talking about! HST"

I've shared a few large group photos here in the past.

This group photo of the St. Louis Post Office Inspectors and Office Force from 1935 came with a caption identifying everyone, which I transcribed here. Both of my maternal grandparents are in the photo.

This photograph, unfortunately, had no such caption. It's the 1924 Confirmation Class for B'nai El Temple. The youth in the front row, second from the right, with a thin white box drawn around him is my paternal grandfather, Melvin Newmark, age 12.

Here, however, is a photograph I haven't shared. The National Beekeepers Association meeting from 1906. I found this in Gleanings in Bee Culture, Volume 35, 1907, pp. 34-35.


The images can be enlarged, or one can follow the link for an ever larger look. Everyone was given a piece of paper with a number on it to hold, and the caption below identifies everyone by number. Unfortunately, #83, "E. Van Every," didn't make certain the piece of paper was visible to the camera, so I am uncertain who showed up to represent the Van Every family.

Either the caption is in error, and it should read "M.E. Van Every" for my great grandfather, Melvin Elijah. Or his fourteen year old daughter, Evelyn/Evva, represented the family. There are some young women in the photo, so it's possible. I've sent the photograph to some cousins, but haven't yet received any positive or negative identification. I do have a photograph of Melvin, shown below with his wife, Margaret. I don't see a clear match for him in the group above.

Google Reader Alternatives: First Glance

I've begun looking at various alternate RSS Feed Readers recommended by various Tech sites, such as Macgasm, LifeHacker, and CNET.

Feedly: Has different apps for iOS, Android, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. No version for Internet Explorer. I don't like Internet Explorer, but I am restricted to using it at work. I wouldn’t be able to catch up on blog posts during my lunch hour. (Well…sure I could…on my phone. But it’s easier to read blog posts on a large screen.)

NewsBlur: When I first looked at NewsBlur the evening of March 13th, it said that its free version had a limit of 64 feeds. By March 14th, that number had decreased to 12. The decrease could be temporary, there is no information on their blog. Regardless, that's too low for me. Their premium version is only $12/year.  If there were no other viable choices, I’d consider it. But with worthwhile free options, paying even $12/year is too much.

TheOldReader: Created when Google Reader made some changes that upset some users, it was constructed to look and feel exactly like Google Reader. Currently, due to server overload, they are limiting the number of users who can import their feeds at one time, so I haven’t had a chance to really test this out, but it looks promising. Especially for users who don’t like getting used to new things. Update: Was able to upload my subscription file the evening of March 14th, but received a message that it could be several hours before the subscriptions were imported, as 5482 users were in the import queue ahead of me.

Google Currents: Only has iOS and Android versions. If you only follow your subscriptions on a phone or tablet, this might be a good alternative. Until Google decides it no longer wishes to maintain it either.

NetVibes: The only place so far I have been able to import my Google Reader feeds. Their interface is more complicated than Google Reader. They have two views: Reader and Widget. Reader is similar to Google Reader, though I haven't figured out the best way to bookmark articles to return to them. Widget view allows you to add additional functionality similar to an iGoogle page. (iGoogle is being retired in November of 2013)

Pulse: This seems to be one of the more popular 'visual' readers. For those who like to view their blogs in a newspaper/magazine style. It is my opinion the more blogs one subscribes to, the less useful this becomes. It was announced yesterday that LinkedIn is close to buying Pulse. Not sure how that will impact the application (or the networking site).

Currently, my plan is to test out NetVibes and TheOldReader and decide which one I prefer. If someone suggests I try something not listed above, I'll consider it.

Another factor some might be wondering about is how likely are the above websites to be around a year from now? I have no ability to measure that for any of the options above. Especially not Google Currents. Google Reader has been in existence since 2005, but Google has been doing a lot of 'spring cleaning' recently, and making it clear they are willing to abandon applications they view as unsuccessful. (And many people would not have included Google Reader in that list.)

Survey Update: Possible Bad News for 70% of My Readers

Five days ago I posted a simple survey, asking my readers how they followed the posts on my blog.



70% of the current votes are going towards using an RSS reader, such as Google Reader.

While there are multiple RSS readers, Google Reader is one of the more popular ones.
According to Google Reader's statistics, over 100 people are subscribers to this blog.

As popular as it is, today Google announced it is retiring it.
As of July 1st, 2013, Google Reader will no longer exist.

I am a user of Google Reader myself, and would appreciate suggestions on other Readers to try.

Lifehacker provides some suggestions

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 3 to 9

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Megan Smolenyak at The Huffington Post writes about a reply she recently received to a letter she wrote 28 years 

• At the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal Julie Goucher writes of the decimation of graves in Australia, and a petition to stop the process.

• In Find Where Your Slave Ancestors are Buried, Hillary Crosley at The Root interviews the Fordham University staff behind the new Burial Database Project of Enslaved African Americans.

• Nissan Tzur of The Jerusalem Post reports that the Warsaw Municipality is handing over control of the Brodno cemetary to the Jewish community. Constructed in 1780, the cemetery was devastated by the Nazis. A restoration project is planned.

•  Elli Fischer at The Jewish Week looks at the origins of the myth that those with tattoos can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Poetry

• The loss of you lingers - Karin Cook - Letters of Note

Devolution

• In science news, the study of the ancestry of house mites, reveals devolution is possible.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Other Weekly Lists

• Genealogy News Corral - Diane Haddad - GenealogyInsider
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog
• Blog Posts for Genealogists - Michael J Leclerc - Mocavo Blog
• Monday Morning Mentions - Lynn Palermo - Armchair Genealogist
• Best of the Genea-Blogs - Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• Genealogy Round Up - Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - MSS's Roots World
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• March 10 - Meatfare Sunday (Orthodox Christian)
• March 10 - Maha Shivaratri (Hindu)
• March 11 - Johnny Appleseed Day
• March 11 - Commonwealth Day (Commonwealth of Nations)
• March 12 - World Day Against Cyber Censorship
• March 13 - L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday (Scientology)
• March 14 - Pi Day (3.14)
• March 15 - International Day Against Police Brutality
• March 15 - Ides of March
• March 16 - Bacchanalia (Ancient Rome) [March 16-17]
• March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
• March 17 - Cheesefare Sunday (Orthodox Christian)
• March 18 - Lent Begins (Orthodox Christian)
• March 19 - Saint Joseph's Day (Christian)
• March 20 - Ostara (northern hemisphere) Mabon (southern hemisphere) (Pagan)
• March 21 - New Year (Baha'i)
• March 21 - New Year (Persian/Zoroastrian)
• March 24 - Palm Sunday (Christian)
• March 24 - Orthodox Sunday (Orthodox Christian)

Survey

For those who may not have seen my earlier post, I am conducting a survey to see how readers are following my blog posts. I am also curious if there are any other places you would like to be able to read my posts. If so, leave a comment.

Making Sense About Making Sense

Image Source: Office of Biological and Environmental Research 
of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Sense about Science, a British charitable trust, has released a report entitled, Sense About Genetic Ancestry. The entire report is available as a free PDF download. Already several newspapers, such as the Telegraph, are stating that the report indicates DNA Tests are Meaningless. This is because the scientists refer to DNA testing as 'genetic astrology,' even though they are careful to say:

"There are credible ways to use the genetic data from mtDNA or Y chromosomes in individual ancestry testing, such as to supplement independent, historical studies of genealogy. If, for example, two men have identified – through historical research, possibly involving surnames – a common maleline ancestor in the sixteenth century, it would be reasonable to use their Y chromosome data to test this. There are some ancestry testing companies that offer this service.  

To answer a specific question about individual ancestry with any degree of confidence requires a combination of historical records and genetic information."

No genealogist is going to dispute that advice, but there is no credible scientific way to use astrology, which is where their metaphor breaks down, and leads to bad media reporting. It could be argued the language of the report is as sensationalistic as the language of the DNA companies which the scientists are complaining about.

The points the scientists raise are good ones. There probably are people taking the DNA tests without conducting historical record research, thinking the DNA test is all they need to do. And the report is meant for them, not for the genealogist who is taking the test with their eyes wide open about what the tests mean, and don't mean.

If you're unsure what the tests means, read the report. I'm no expert, but I have read a lot about DNA testing, and I don't think I disagree with any of their premises, though I do find fault with some of the conclusions.

A survey: How do you read my blog?

I have tried to make this blog accessible in a variety of places. However, I thought I would post a survey to see which of these places are currently the most popular.

Also, if there is a place not listed below, where you would like to be able to access my blog posts, let me know in the comments.