What I'm Reading These Days - Part 1

I promised that one of my themes for April blogging would be to list different genealogy publications and books I've been perusing. On Monday, I received the May 2007 issue of Internet Genealogy. It was like reading a hometown paper, full of news about and written by people I know either in real life or through blogging! Starting out, Lisa A. Alzo presented "Where's Wendell? A Case Study," describing her search for an ancestor of a client using primarily Internet resources. It was through Lisa's writings that I discovered one of my favorite new genealogy sites, MyHeritage.com, and I always enjoy reading her articles with the hope of finding great new online resources. Lisa is also generous enough to share a number of her published articles on her website.

My friend and fellow EWGS member, Donna Potter Phillips, takes a look at the "Washington State Online Digital Archives," (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov) as a pioneer in the movement to not only provide access to historical records and images (a boon to genealogists), but also to preserve the digital history of the state (websites of former governors, "e-mail and electronic documents of governors, legislators, and other elected officials").

Marian Press examines the Internet's newest incarnation with "In Search of the Web 2.0." In the section of this article subtitled "Blogs," Marion mentions a number of popular blogs, including Genealogy Blog, Joe Beine's Genealogy Roots Blog, The Genealogue, Oxford County Genealogy Notebook, the Genealogy Blog Finder (the last three are all maintained by Chris Dunham), and Susan Kitchen's Family Oral History Using Digital Tools, to name a few. Marion also writes about Wikis and Podcasts in this definitive article.

Lastly, another personal friend and fellow EWGS member, Beverly Smith Vorpahl, tells how her new website, www.dbvorpahl.com, helped smash a brick wall on her Smith line. Go to her website and see who her webmaster is. ;-)

There are many other well-written and informative articles by several other authors in this issue, and I recommend you purchase a copy at your local newstand, or better yet, subscribe!