Welcome to the September 4, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic of this edition is: Research From Scratch! We've each put in a few hours of online genealogy research (OK, some put in a more than a few ;-) and we're sharing our results. The idea was to start fresh with someone we haven't researched before and see how far we could get using just online resources. I'm very impressed with the online research skills of our participants and I'm sure you will be too. Read along and see which resources we chose and what our results were. If you have a good online resource that one of our participants didn't use, leave them a comment. I'm sure they'd appreciate it!
The end of summer is here and autumn is knocking on the door. Make the best of the late summer harvest with a fresh fruit smoothie. Blend your favorite summer fruit with some yogurt and pour yourself a tall glass of yum! It will refresh you and provide a nice accompaniment to this edition of the COG. Enjoy your holiday weekend... the Carnival is back in town!
Randy Seaver presents Was Charlotte on the Orphan Train? posted at Genea-Musings, saying, "Family stories are sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. Charlotte's story, handed down to her descendants has some elements of truth to it, but also some clearly wrong facts. The good news is that I was able to connect second cousins, who can sort it out between themselves!" Randy hit the jackpot in his research! He was able to find all sorts of good information and string together a nice timeline of events. Randy's impressive online research skills are evident and his write up is clear and concise. He does an excellent job of presenting and analyzing information in true Randy form. Always a pleasure to read! This is how "The Master" does it!
Bill West presents PASSING IT ALONG: HELPING OTHERS FIND THEIR ANCESTORS posted at West in New England, saying, "I haven't done had anyone recently ask me to help them
climb their family tree but I have helped folks in the past and these are the sites I've used to do it." Bill has his own list of sources he checks when he helps someone get started with their family history research. What a great idea! It's a great list too. Wish I'd seen it before I did my own research project! Thanks, Bill!
J.M. presents The Limits of Online Research – A Case File posted at Tracing My Roots, saying, "I thought I was researching from scratch, instead I was seeing in practice the limits that exist when one does their genealogy research online. Come join me on my journey and I’ll show you what walls I bumped into online!" J.M. bumped into some walls that stalled out her research at some points but still she was able to make some good headway using just online sources. You'll sense J.M.'s frustration but also see what she was able to accomplish. I was impressed! She's not ready to give up her time in the archives though! Nice research and nice presentation J.M.!
Kerry Scott presents This Post Took Four Hours, Three Pop-Tarts, Two Cans of Pop and $146 posted at Clue Wagon, saying, "This is my first carnival ever, so I have no clue what I'm doing. If I've done it wrong or you need additional info from me, please let me know (you won't hurt my feelings). Thank you!" I'd say you hit a home run with your first article, Kerry! Great job! Caution: Kerry's article may make your mouth water and will likely make you giggle. Kerry did a great job with her internet research project. She sure knows her resources! Well researched, well written, well... what else can I say? It's a hit! Thanks for participating in the COG Kerry!
Apple presents David, Daniel, Donald! posted at Apple's Tree, saying, "I thought researching another woman's family back three generations would be a snap. Three or four hours, write about it and move on. Of course it didn't work out quite that way!" Ah, but Apple was up for the challenge! When she didn't find what she expected to find where she expected to find it, she went sleuthing from other directions. Apple is a fine example of what a great attribute tenacity is in a genealogy researcher. And her write up is easy to understand and follow with a tad bit of humor too. :-) Great sleuthing, Apple!
Cynthia Shenette presents COG 97: Researching "The Coldbrook Tragedy" (Part 1 of 4) posted at Heritage Zen:, saying, "I have been intrigued by the "Coldbrook Tragedy" for a number of years. Our assignment for this COG offered the perfect opportunity to research the topic at length. Because of the notoriety of the case, I was lucky and found a considerable amount of information online. I should add the disclaimer however, that my research has only "scratched the surface" of the information I believe to be available. Clearly on-site library and repository follow-up is needed." Cynthia did a terrific job of researching the Naramore family and presenting her findings! She had the kind of success I envisioned I would have with this type of project but did not. I am both impressed and amazed at what she was able to accomplish in just a few hours of online research. I especially liked her thoughtful analysis of her findings in Part 3. Great, thorough, job, Cynthia!
Jasia presents Looking For Ancestors posted at Creative Gene. I had high hopes in beginning my online research project but it didn't take long for me to get frustrated with a lack of results. I thought it would be easy to find some of my friend's family history. That was not the case. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! Note to self: Some of your own research breakthroughs came just when you were at the point of giving up. Don't give up!
Donna Pointkouski presents Climbing up Gene Kelly's Family Tree posted at What's Past is Prologue. I wondered if anyone would think to try researching someone famous... Leave it to our Donna to be the one to do it! Great idea, Donna! You'll definitely want to visit Donna's blog to see where she got the information she started with and how far she was able to get. As usual, Donna presents her information in a very engaging manner. It's a fun read! Thanks, Donna!
~*~*~*Feature Article *~*~*~
Please join me in congratulating Dorene for being the Featured Author of the 97th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!
That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I hope you've learned some good lessons and benefited from our online research projects. I especially enjoyed reading about our participant's thought processes in choosing the resources they did. I got some great ideas for my own research. What about you?
Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: Document Analysis! Show us a document that helped you break down a brick wall on your family tree. Discuss the information that appears on the document and how it contributes to your family history. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Thanks for the poster, fM!
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