This and That

This past week I took a break from blogging, and simply enjoyed being a reader instead. One of the things I like about Google Reader is that, unlike a lot of my Google applications, I can access it at work during my break or lunchtime (the public school's browser filters are naturally very strong, since we're really only supposed to be accessing the Internet for educational purposes). For those of you whose blog feed is set to display only the title or the first paragraph of your post, it can be a bit frustrating not to be able to read the whole thing. If the title or first paragraph truly piques my interest, then I star it and try to remember to come back to them later when I'm at home. Otherwise, they never get read. Hmm...something to consider when you set up your RSS feeds.

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COG poster courtesy of the footnoteMaven

One of the things I enjoyed as a blog reader instead of a blog writer this week was perusing the 55th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy published by Jasia at Creative Gene on Thursday. The theme was "Show and Tell" and 49 bloggers posted 50 articles about their favorite heirlooms, documents, photos, or significant ancestors in this most-participated edition ever! My submission was about my 4th-great-grandmother's cross stitch sampler. Kudos once again to Jasia for an interesting and pleasurable COG, especially as she labored over it while mourning the recent loss of her dear canine friend, Caesar. Jasia is considering some changes to the COG, as it is experiencing some explosive growth in popularity. The 56th Edition's topic will be: 10 essential books in my genealogy library. It will be hosted by Lori Thorton at Smoky Mountain Family Historian. The deadline for submissions will be September 15th, and you can submit your blog article using this carnival submission form.

Speaking of carnivals, I've updated my "September Is..." post with not only carnival deadlines, but deadlines for other genea-blogging events this month. Check it out.

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The Grand Rapids [Michigan] Historical Commission contacted me after coming across my mother's guest post about her school years at Hall Street Elementary. They sought permission to publish my mother's photograph of the school, as they did not have any of the entire front of the structure that they could use on their website (permission has been granted).

And speaking of mom's guests posts, you may recall her mentioning her best friend Beth, with whom she ended up drifting away during their high school years since they had no classes together. Earlier this summer, Beth came across mom's posts and contacted me. When my parents visited Michigan in July, Mom and Beth had a reunion! You never know what will happen when you start a family history and genealogy blog!

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Jessica Oswalt from Jessica's Genejournal awarded me the "I Love Your Blog" Award. Thanks, Jessica! UPDATE: Thank you also to Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist and Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family for also awarding me this honor! UPDATES #2 and 3: I'm honored that two three more bloggers also picked me for this award: A. Spence of Spence-Lowry Family History, Travis LeMaster of TJL Genes: Preserving Our Family History and Jeanna of RootsReading.com. The rules are to give this award to seven other blogs (with links) and let them know that you have picked them. Also, link back to the person who gave you this award. I am picking seven new-to-me blogs that I have enjoyed recently and hope you will add them to your list of great reads as well:

Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog
Exploring My Ancestors
Find Your Folks
GeneaDiva's History, Genealogy and "Stuff"
Genealogy Help and Hints
Granite in My Blood
Historical Town Maps Blog

These are just 7 of the currently-214 genealogy-related blogs on my Google Reader list!

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Speaking of great reads, fellow Michigan ancestry blogger and shirt-tail relative Cheryl (her cousin TK is a distant cousin of mine!) has a new URL for her Two Sides of the Ocean blog here after Blogger ate her old one. :-( Be sure to update your feeds or bookmarks, or if this is a new blog to you, check it out!