And the Winners Are...

Photo by Michelle Goodrum.

In The Turning of Generations second blogiversary post, I announced three randomly selected well wishers would be highlighted. It's my way of saying thank you to the Wonderful Readers of this blog. Using Random.org, the readers whose numbers came up are:

Shelley Bishop - A Sense of Family
Shelley has been researching her family for a number of years now and has been taking courses to further her genealogical education. Her blog always has something interesting, whether it be a story, heirloom, document, research tip or strategy. Since Shelley has a wonderful way with words, I find myself immediately drawn into whatever topic she is writing about.

Jill Ball - Geniaus
Jill is one of our community's bloggers from Down Under. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting her at RootsTech and attending one of her presentations. She is delightful. Jill also has another blog, Android Genealogy where she writes about and highlights the use of Androids and related apps in genealogy. I always pay attention to what Jill has to say.

Sheri Fenley - The Educated Genealogist
Sheri, who claims to be painfully shy, doesn't take genealogy too seriously. Don't get me wrong, Sheri is serious, passionate, and knowledgeable about her profession but she isn't afraid to put a humorous or entertaining spin on any topic. Whenever Sheri posts, I may laugh until I cry but I always learn something from her.

P.S. No blogiversary is complete without Sheri's rendition of, "Happy Blogiversary to You."

Thank you to all of the Wonderful Readers who stop by The Turning of Generations. Your support and friendship is priceless!

URL for this post: http://turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/2012/02/and-winners-are.html

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

How Do You Organize Your Blog Reading?

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum One of the things I love about blogging is that sometimes you read a post that causes the light bulb to go on. Such was the case with Roots and Rambles, Where I Get My Information post by Marian Pierre-Louis.


Marian talked about how she uses folders in Google Reader to manage her blog reading. I’m probably going to embarrass myself here, but for some reason, using folders to organize blogs I read had not occurred to me! Duh. With over 350 blog subscriptions, it was becoming difficult to keep up and also not get sucked into spending all of my time reading blogs.

Here are the folders I set up:

• Must read
• Top Blogs
• Non Genealogy
• Read With Time
• Rarely Posts

I find I’m getting through my reading much faster and am now able to pick and choose what I read based on how much time I have or simply what mood I’m in. One unforeseen benefit is that when an item shows up under Rarely Posts, I get right to it because I know it’s someone I don’t hear from as often but I want to read what they have to say.
So now I’m really curious. If you use folders to organize your blog reading, what folders have you set up?

Photo by p. Gordon


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

There's Still Time To Vote For Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs

There's still time to vote for Family Tree Magazine's 2011 Best Genealogy Blogs. You have until Monday, December 20 at 11:59 p.m. To see the complete list of nominees, click here.

The Turning of Generations is honored to have been nominated in the New Blogs cagetory! There are many really awesome new blogs out there, so I truly do appreciate the nomination.

Get out and excercise your right to vote. If you've already voted, do it again. You can vote as many times as you like. Oh yes, and if you like this blog, please check the box next to The Turning of Generations!

Good luck to all of the nominees. There are some fantastic blogs that have been nominated.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs Nominees

I've been travelling for a few days without normal conveniences like internet or TV. What a nice surprise to return and see The Turning of Generations has been nominated for Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs! You can go here to see the entire list and vote.

Thank you genealogy blogging community for the nomination!!

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

52 Weeks Challenge 9 - Blogs

I have accepted  this week's Challenge which is to read 5 new blogs every day and write about them. 

The first blog I found is a new one to the GeneaBloggers group - The Clue Wagon.  Kerry Scott has been blogging for a while on another topic and has just switched over to genealogy.  The first post I read, "Organizing Your Family Photos - Part 1" caught my eye because that is a favorite topic of mine.  She has since posted Parts 2 and 3. I have thousands of photos that are in the process of being organized (and probably will be forever) and I'm always looking for ideas.

Then I read some older posts.  I like her style.  It's light, witty and humorous and I want to keep reading more.  I encourage you to check it out!

GeneaBlogie is new to me but not new to the blogging scene. Even if the blog is on a brief haitus, there is plenty of material to read every day for quite a while.  I particularly like The Best of GeneaBlogie and noticed he has an entire section about the law as it relates to genealogy.  The copyright articles look particularly interesting since, as a new blogger, the last thing I want to do is unwittingly violate copyright or someone's privacy.

I have been reading The Family Curator for a few weeks now but decided to go back to the beginning and read all of her entries.  Since my great grandparents, grandparents, parents and now myself are the "Savers of Everything," I need to get back to organizing all of this stuff I have been schlepping over to my house for the last 10 or 15 years.  I have a real archive here and I think Denise's blog can help get me back on track.

Gen Wish List initially attracted me because of Tina's monthly Genealogy To Do List and her follow up at the end of the month.  I am a list person but putting one's To Do List out for all the world to see and then following up to say what she did/didn't accomplish - well that's gutsy!  At least for me it would be! It's also something I need to start doing!!!  Maybe I'll try it privately for a month and then work up the courage to post my monthly to do list.  Thanks Tina for a great idea!

Finally, I stepped out of my comfort zone and took a look at The Genetic Genealogist.  Genetics really does interest me but for some reason I get a bit intimidated by the thought of delving into this topic.  Anyway, my next course at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies is on genetics so it's time to get going on this topic.

In summary, this was a really good activity and I found some ideas for activities.  I also found some other great blogs that are new to me by reading some of the other blogger's entries for this week's 52 Weeks Challenge.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum