Carnival of Genealogy, 93rd Edition

Welcome to the May 4, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic for this edition is: "How-To" Series! This time around all our participants have written a series of articles in which they share their expertise. There is sooo much to be learned from these genealogy blog authors! If you read this edition of the COG from start to finish you'll learn the nuts and bolts of how to do genealogy research in Eastern Europe, Norway, the Netherlands, and Ohio. You'll also learn how to do genealogy research the "old fashioned way" (before computers), while saving money and coming in on budget. Not only that... you'll also learn how to organize and preserve your heirlooms and research documents, make and preserve an audio recording of your loved ones, create a composite photo of a place near and dear to your heart, write a compelling and inspirational family history, and do so with all of your sources cited correctly. Whew! Have I got your attention yet??? This edition of the COG is loaded with great information from true experts in the field. I couldn't have chosen a better group of writers and topics if I'd hand picked them myself!

So, without further ado, I suggest you mix yourself a nice thick fruit smoothie (you're going to need the good nutrition for all the learning you're about to do ;-) and prepare to take a lot of notes. The Carnival is in town and your education is about to begin!

[In this edition I've commented on several articles. As is most often the case in the COG, the articles are presented in the order I received them. The articles I've selected to comment on were chosen not because they are "better" than the rest but because there is something about them I want to call your attention to. Maybe they are especially well researched, maybe they made me laugh, maybe they are a good example of storytelling, maybe they taught me something I didn't already know, etc. Just think of it as me pointing out some of the various rides offered at a carnival ;-)

The featured article is one that stands out from the crowd. It's a shining example of putting all the ingredients together and coming up with a 5 course dinner. It covers the topic thoroughly, in an engaging way, and leaves you fully satisfied at the end.]

And now, on with the show!

Dorene Paul presents 93rd Carnival of Genealogy: How To Series posted at Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay, saying, "Dorene from Ohio has presented three blog posts related to genealogical research in the Buckeye State. If have ancestors in Ohio, check out her site."

Jennifer Shaw presents COG 93: The Genealogical Proof Standard posted at ShawGenealogy, saying, "I wrote this series on the Genealogical Proof Standard as I was preparing to give a lecture on the topic. Each post looks at a step, breaking it down and explaining what it means and how to do it." I really enjoyed reading Jennifer's 7-part series on the Genealogical Proof Standard. It's a great series that gets to the point and gives very good examples. If you're wanting the nuts and bolts of GPS without having to read a book 2 inches thick, don't miss this series! Thank you, Jennifer, for breaking it all down for us!

Astrid Haugen presents Researching Norwegian Ancestors: What's the Deal with those Norwegian Names? posted at Of Trolls and Lemons. Astrid writes of Norwegian naming conventions, and online research methodology. I've heard about the challenges of researching Norwegian surnames before. After reading Astrid's series of articles the surname convention finally makes sense to me. If you have Norwegian ancestors you'll truly appreciate Astrid's series of articles! She did a wonderful job of explaining the naming convention and how to look for ancestors in online Parish Registers and in the online Grave Database. Very thoroughly and well done, Astrid! Thanks!

Tina Lyons presents Saving Money with Society Memberships - Part One posted at Tina's Genealogical Wish List, saying, "How to save money by joining genealogy societies."

Steve Danko presents A Beginner's Guide to Eastern European Genealogy - Part 1 posted at Steve's Genealogy Blog, saying, "To start off the fifth year of Steve's Genealogy Blog, I've published a three part series with some basic information that those beginning to study Eastern European Genealogy may find useful. The first installment describes background and first steps, the second installment describes the history of Eastern Europe, and the third installment discusses how records of birth/baptism, marriage, and death varied in different parts of Poland at different times in history." Oh to have had this information and advice when I was getting started with my Polish genealogy research! Steve does a terrific job of identifying the key elements of Eastern European genealogy research. I especially liked his synopsis of Polish history which tells why certain events are important for genealogy researchers to understand. And his descriptions of what format to expect to find vital records in is very, very helpful too. Bravo Steve!

Cheryl Schulte presents The Family Kolberg/Colberg, Part One posted at Two Sides of the Ocean, saying, "An example of how to achieve success in genealogy research with using a variety of available tools." Cheryl's 9-part series takes you step-by-step through her entire research history of one family line. She starts way back in the pre-computer age (doesn't get to using computers until Part 7!), back when letter writing was the way to get things done, and gives a good time frame for how long it took to request and receive information. She includes lots of photos, maps, and documents to illustrate her findings. And Cheryl leaves us with some mystery photos, research yet to be done. I don't know how she can remember the details of so many years of research! Seriously, this is a fantastic series and should be a must-read for those who give up when they can't find what they're looking for online!

Steve Danko presents Describing Place Names in Poland - A Summary posted at Steve's Genealogy Blog, saying, "How do you record the names of the places where the vital events of your ancestors' lives occurred? Do you report the names of the places as they exist today or do you report the names of the places as they were at the time of the events? In this series of articles, Steve Danko discusses why the conscientious genealogist should report the place names as they were at the time of the event and he describes how to report the names of places in Poland throughout Polish history. The lessons are far from complete, however, and the reader should consider this a work in progress." If you're not into Polish genealogy this one might make your eyes glaze over ;-) Steve gets down and dirty with Polish place names... digging into Poland's history to determine the many governmental boundary changes that have taken place over time. It's invaluable if you are researching family history in Poland! Thanks for another great series, Steve!

Cynthia Shenette presents Letters and Photos and Stuff, Oh My!: Sorting Through a Loved One's Estate (Part 1) posted at Heritage Zen:, saying, "I'm new to blogging, though I've been reading the Carnival of Genealogy for a while. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to submit my work. If you have any questions regarding my entry feel free to e-mail at any time. Thanks again! Cindy" Oh Cindy, you'll fast become a favorite of COG readers if you keep writing articles like these! Here we have a series of 3 articles on the topic of sorting and organizing documents, heirlooms, and the like. Who hasn't been faced with a big box (or several) of someone's precious "stuff" to deal with? Cindy has lots of good ideas for how to approach and proceed. Very good advice here! Thanks so much Cindy!

Jasia presents Creating a Composite Photo, Part 1 posted at Creative Gene. "How'd you do that?" That's the question I was asked repeatedly after I shared some composite photos in a recent blog post. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share with my Creative Gene readers just how I did it. Part 1 deals with obtaining the necessary photos, Part 2 deals with obtaining the necessary software, and Part 3 deals with the nuts and bolts of putting it all together. Step-by-step screen shots in Part 3 illustrate how I put the composite picture together. I look forward to seeing the results of anyone who has tried it!

J.M. presents How-to Guide to Genealogy in the Netherlands posted at Tracing My Roots, saying, "This guide is my way of sharing my knowledge of Dutch genealogy. It is my hope that this guide helps both people located within the Netherlands who are researching their ancestors as well as people outside of the Netherlands who want to research their Dutch roots. It is an on-going series." J.M. gives us very nice directions on how to obtain vital record information for those researching their Dutch ancestory. She also has links to articles with examples of the documents provided by the Central Bureau of Genealogy in The Hague. She makes it sound so easy but also points out that it isn't always so. The series currently has 3 parts but it's ongoing and more will be added. It's a gem! Thanks for information J.M.!

Joan Hill presents 93rd Carnival Of Genealogy:"How To" Confessions of a Storytelling Family Historian; Part III, On Writing posted at Roots'n'Leaves, saying, "Confession 1: In this community of serious genealogists, being a teller of stories places me in a space apart, and indeed intimidates me. Confession 2: A desire to be recognized as a serious historian, as well as a gifted story teller. Confession 3: When I started this series, I did not have a clue as to how I write." Joan is a natural storyteller. If you've read her blog you know that she makes her writing seem effortless. This is not the case though! There's a lot more that goes into her stories than you might think. This 3-part series takes us through the thought process, research, and editing that goes into her writing. It's a good lesson for those who aspire to be as good a writer a Joan is (that would be me ;-) ! Thanks for the lessons, Joan!

M. Diane Rogers presents How To Budget Your Genealogy $ - Part 3 - Carnival of Genealogy - 93rd Edition posted at CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt', saying, "Genealogy information isn't always free - nor do I think it's reasonable to assume it should be. Often deciding how to spend your genealogy dollars involves research and asking lots of questions. (Sounds much like genealogy itself, doesn't it?)" This is a series we can all benefit from. Genealogy can get expensive but there are ways to manage the costs. Diane shows us a myriad of ways to examine our research strategies and choose the best ways to allocate our money to cover the costs. Way to go Diane! Thanks for showing us how to stretch a dollar and save some money!

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~*~*~*Feature Article *~*~*~

Susan A. Kitchens presents Family Oral History Using Digital Tools | From Digital Audio Recording to Audio CD: Part 1 - Audio into Audacity posted at Family Oral History Using Digital Tools [News], saying, "It starts with the audio recording you made after you said, “Hi Mom, I want to interview you about your memories about Grandma and Grandpa.”* (titles of relatives may vary) It ends with your burned Audio CD. This set of tutorials takes you through freely available software -- Audacity and iTunes -- to process audio files of your family's stories. (Pssssst! Secret! There's an audio cameo by Sheri Fenley, another geneablogger!)" Oh yeah, oh yeah! I was absolutely delighted to see this submission from Susan. And if you're like me and you're intimidated by the whole sound recording and editing thing you will be too! Susan takes us step-by-step through all the stages of creating and preserving an audio recording. If you've ever wished you knew how to do that, read on my friends! Thanks Susan! I'll be coming back to your blog soon to work my way through making an audio CD with some of my audio recordings :-)

Susan's articles are easy to follow and understand. Not everyone can write step-by-step instructions and be entertaining at the same time. But Susan does it and she does it well. Don't miss her terrific series! 


Please join me in congratulating Susan Kitchens for being the Featured Author of the 93rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!

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That concludes this edition of the COG. Thanks to all the participants who so generously shared their expertise with us. What a caring, sharing, and knowledgeable group you are! This edition required more than usual from our participants, at least three posts. So please be sure to leave a comment and thank them for their commitment to genealogy and family history education. That's the very least they deserve!

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: The Changing Role of Women. In honor of Mother's Day, which is just around the corner, we're going to reflect on the changing roles of the women on our family trees. Do you have a "Rosie the Riveter" in the family? What about a "Suzy Homemaker"? Is there a woman who has made her way in a field traditionally dominated by men... a doctor, engineer, scientist, astronaut, police or military officer, etc? Or maybe you come from a long line of domestically oriented women. Discuss the changing roles of women in your family and share them with us in the next edition of the COG. The deadline for submissions is June 1st.

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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Review of ArchivaLife Memory Keeper

Have you heard of the ArchivaLife Lifetime Memory Keeper? I hadn't until just recently. The "Classic" version is a set of 2 albums that come with a storage case. The first album is a 12"x12" scrapbook and the second album is one with pre-printed fold-out pages where you record (write) your memories. That's the gist of it but as is so often the case, the devil is in the details. And in this case, the quality is in the details too. Allow me to tell you in detail a little more about these albums.

To begin with, you can't help but be impressed with the look and feel of these albums. They aren't leather on the outside but you'll wonder if they are. They have a very classic, expensive, and durable feel to them. The inside lining of the covers looks and feels just like suede. The albums look and feel like a high quality product right from the start. The two albums fit nicely in the matching storage box that comes with them. Again, very well constructed, looks attractive and feels substantial. It's quite heavy.

Now let's take a look at the individual albums.

Inside the scrapbook album there are 13 plastic sleeves each with a sheet of archival paper in them. If you're in to digital scrapbooking like me, you can create your pages, have them printed, and slip them right into the sleeves. If you prefer to hand make your scrapbook pages you can do that as well. The basic idea is to create a 2-page spread for each decade of your life (the other album is based on recording your memories by decade). Personally, this is how I tend to think about people's lives anyway. When my mom died, I created a scrapbook page for each decade of her life to display at the funeral home. This scrapbook album would have also been a lovely and classy way to display those scrapbook pages!

The second album is called "LifeLines" because it's organized as a timeline of life events. The timeline is blank of course, you fill in the events. It's not just a series of blank pages to write your memories over time though. The left side of each 2-page (1 decade) spread has a vertical list of specific topics... age, home, education, occupation, significant other, children/grandchildren, parents/siblings, friends/acquaintances, pets, faith, health, volunteerism, affiliations, hobbies/interests, sports/activities, memorable events, vacations, autos/transportation, favorite books/songs/TV shows/movies, news and events, President. These topics allow you to show changes in these topics over time. You have a small 2-line space to briefly record changes. On the right side of the 2-page spread there is an area where you can write a synopsis of each decade of your life. And on the back of each page there is a lined area where you can write in more detail about the changes/events you recorded on the front of the page.

The pages in the LifeLines album are printed with an aged look but the paper is thick and seems very durable. Everything about these albums seems to be durable and high quality. They are just beautiful!

Together, these albums are intended to record a person's life events in lieu of a memoir. Not everyone is inclined to write a memoir you know. Take my mom, for instance. She was a professional typist and worked for R.L. Polk publishers for many years. So she was very capable of typing up a story of her life in autobiographical form, memoir, whatever. But did she? No, even though I asked her many times to do just that. Her response was always the same, "Who would want to read about my life?". And yet, after my daughter was born, she happily filled out essentially a pamphlet version of "the story of my life" for her new grandchild. That little booklet had prompts like, "where I went to school" with just a very small space for a response. But you know what? She conveyed all sorts of information in that little booklet that she had never told me before. I can only imagine how much more information I would have about the details of her life if I'd given her an album like LifeLines!

So anyway, I really like this product. Can you tell? And the beauty of it is, it doesn't require any use of technology. Not that I mind technology, but my mom struggled with it. She would have had no trouble with LifeLines though. This would have been her "cup of tea" as they say.

Because I believe in writing a balanced review, I will mention that there are a few things I didn't care for and would have done differently if I were designing the Memory Keeper. However, these few things would not stop me from ordering and enjoying the Memory Keeper or giving one as a gift.

• The scrapbook album has a window in the front cover where you can insert a photo or a title page for the album. The window is roughly 4"x4". It looks nice enough but I'm not a fan of album windows. It's always a bit of a hassle trying to find just the right photo or title, getting it the right size to fit, and maneuvering it into the access slot. And no matter what you put in the window, it won't look as high quality as the album itself unless you have it commercially printed. I would have preferred to have a solid cover with a blank bookplate on the inside of the cover to personalize, title, and dedicate the album.
• The first page inside the LifeLines album gives you line spaces to identify your parent's names, grandparents, children, grandchildren, etc. But when it comes to life partners there's only one line space allowed for "Spouse". This makes it awkward if you never legally married your life partner or if you had multiple spouses. I wish it had been better thought out for more flexibility.
• On the decade pages within the LifeLines album, the column on the left with the topics to address has no blanks where you could write in something you would like to track over your life that doesn't fall into the other categories... gifts received or collectibles acquired over your lifespan come to mind. I would have liked to have had a separate space for commenting on holidays separate from memorable events too.

I wanted to get another opinion of the Memory Keeper so I asked my friend Cheryl to come over and check it out. Her first reaction was the same as mine, "It's heavy!" And that it is. Her next comment echoed my next thought as well, "It's very nice quality, isn't it?". That's what strikes you most about this product when you first see it. It's substantial and classy. When Cheryl saw the inside she liked what she saw too. It really is a cool product!

I'm not aware of anything on the market that puts together a time line of a person's life with photos and text in such an attractive and complete package. It would make a very nice gift to yourself or someone you love. And as a genealogist I sure wish I had a completed Lifetime Memory Keeper done by ANY of my relatives or ancestors!

The "Classic" version includes both albums and a storage box for $125. The "LifeLines" album is also sold separately for $49.99. You can order and get more information at ArchivaLife.com. If you are interested in purchasing a Memory Keeper from ArchivaLife.com you can get free shipping and the company will donate $10 to Foundation for Women for every order received.  Your code to enter at checkout is: GeneShip .

[Acknowledgment: I was contacted by email by the folks at ArchivaLife requesting that I review their product, " Lifetime Memory Keeper". In exchange for agreeing to write a review on my blog I was given a free copy of the product to keep. I was not offered any compensation for sales.]