There are 11 newly-discovered genealogy and family-history related blogs that we’ve located this week. Remember to try and help out these new blogs by:

• using any follow feature listed on the blog
• adding them to your blog reader
• adding a comment on their blog saying “hi” and “welcome”

Here are this week’s new listings:

Adventures with FamilySearch Wiki
http://familysearchwiki.blogspot.com
Blog type: Genealogy education

This site will be to chronicle my experiences with FamilySearch Wiki.

GeneaHistory
http://ozarksgeneahistory.blogspot.com
Blog type: Individual family history, Missouri genealogy

Welcome to GeneaHistory!

We specialize in Ozarks and Midwestern genealogy, as well as researching and writing about the Ozarks.  After working for many years in the accounting field, I returned to school and completed my B. A. in History and Ozark Studies from Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.  It seemed a natural progression to join my love of history with my genealogical research.  I am currently a graduate student studying U.S. and global history, with an emphasis on Ozarks history and culture.

Memberships

I am a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists,  the National Genealogical Society, the Missouri State Genealogical Association, and the Ozarks Genealogical Society. I am a member of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, were I served a term as Treasurer. I am also a member of the Friends of the Library.   I am a volunteer at Greene County Archives, where my current project is indexing Greene County Circuit Court cases, beginning from 1833.

Genealogical Privacy
http://www.genealogicalprivacy.org
Blog type: Genealogy education blog

About the Genealogical Privacy Project blog

The Genealogical Privacy Project blog is a venue to address the privacy concerns in a period of great technological and legal changes. The aim of this project is to offer privacy advocates, genealogists, technology experts and others to talk with each other rather than past each other. Ideally using the wealth of experience, knowledge and influence of the contributing bloggers, we can help to resolve some of the vexing problems we face concerning identity fraud, DNA and medical testing and sharing, vital records, the legal framework for electronic communications, as well as new technologies.

We hope that making these ideas and conversations more accessible will help educate the lay public, amateur genealogists, and influential intellectuals. Most importantly we aspire to promote and facilitate the discussion of questions important to the genealogical, privacy and technology communities.

About the Liberty and Privacy Network

The Liberty and Privacy Network was founded in 2005 to defend privacy, civil liberties and market economics. The LPN was the first non-profit human rights and civil liberties organization whose core mission recognizes traditional economic rights as a necessary foundation for a broad understanding of human rights. The Liberty and Privacy Network is a non-governmental advocacy and research 501(c)(3) organization.

I-Descend
http://i-descend.com
Blog type: Individual family history

First of all, my name is Kathy Lynch, I’m a wife to my husband Wayne, a mother to my four boys Ryan, Cody, Brett and Damon, and I love doing genealogy. I believe genealogy first touched my life when I was a young girl. My grandmother was an expert in genealogy research. I remember going to the genealogy library in Fresno, CA with her while she tirelessly searched through reels of microfilm. Whether I realized it or not, she taught me how important our ancestors should be to us, and how important it is to prove our connection to them through proper documentation.

In the past, I had dabbled with genealogy, but I was pretty busy raising a house full of boys. Now that they are older I’ve been able to dedicate more of my time. Just over three years ago I dove head first into researching when my sister suggested we sign up for Ancestry.com’s free trial to see what we could find. We were so excited about all the information we found, we could hardly sleep. It had been a really long time since I got that excited over something, and I was so amazed at all the information we could find while at home. Since then I have spent hundreds of hours doing research and finding family connections all over the world.

My excitement has inspired me to help other people see the importance of finding their ancestors. I have found that many people just don’t know where to start…so they don’t. I’ve created this website to make things simple, and as a resource for the beginner and anyone looking to improve their research skills.

Technology is wonderful, and we couldn’t be more blessed to do research in this day and age. I look forward to your comments as I embark on this journey.

Let’s learn it, link it, and love it together.

I Think We’re Related!
http://ithinkwererelated.blogspot.com
Blog type: Individual family history

I have been researching my families for about 20 years. I am a recent graduate of Boston University’s Online Genealogical Research Certificate Course (OL4) and now an avid – or is that compulsive?- genealogist. I’ve grown as a researcher and genealogist and now that I have a constantly growing tree, I find that I am more curious about the individuals than adding more people to the branches. I have a lot of fun seeking and finding artifacts from ancestors, especially the older ones. I write about my work to help encourage others take the leap, to share some of the treasures that I find, and to show how I got there. My newest tool is Evidentia which I believe will advance the quality of my work.

Meeting My Family
http://jackiedinnis.wordpress.com
Blog type: Individual family history, UK genealogy

This is a blog following my attempts to research my family history.  I have boxes of photographs, letters and documents and am attempting to find an order in the chaos.  I am hoping by writing little and often that things will become clearer, categories will emerge and my family tree will grow and prosper.

I was born and still live in Brighton, on the south coast of England.

Rhodes Family History Pages
http://rhodesfamily.org/blog/
Blog type: Individual family history

Hi, I was born and raised in northern Indiana and have spent much of my life here. I have been doing in genealogy for over twenty seven years and I am still learning and feel I have a lot to learn. I am a member of the Society of the Descendants of Washington Army at Valley Forge, also a member and a past chapter president the Son of the American Revolution. When at home you will usually find me in front of the computer looking for dead relations and communicating with the living ones.

Round2it Genealogy
http://round2itgenealogy.wordpress.com
Blog type: Individual family history, Jewish genealogy

This is my Round2it Genealogy Blog because I have finally got around to having a family history blog to share stories about my own German-Jewish ancestors, research tips and other tales and serendipitous facts that I’ve picked up along the way.

SearchSmith.net
http://searchsmith.net
Blog type: Individual family history

SearchSmith.net provides research tips, strategies, discoveries and methodologies that have helped me overcome my own “brick walls” in my family history research.

My husband’s last name is Smith, my dad’s is Martin, my mother was a Walker, one great-grandmother was a Wilson. So obviously, one of the skills sets I have had to develop involves the ability to research common surnames and distinguish between people with the same names. I look forward to sharing some specific strategies for doing just that, along with my success stories.

In a future post I’ll be writing about John Henry Wilson, my third-great grandfather. When I started my research over 20 years ago, he was just a name and a photograph. Thanks to clues penciled on the back of the photo, combined with targeted database searching on Ancestry.com, we now know he served as a Confederate officer and practiced law in Virginia before the Civil War, then taught school and was a justice of the peace in Missouri after the war.

My first blog post discusses resources that can be found for free online that allowed me to help a distant relative of mine break through some of her own brick walls in discovering her New York family history.

The Ancestors Have Spoken
http://theancestorshavespoken.blogspot.com
Blog type: Individual family history

Partaking of Their Breath & of Their Spirit: A Journey of The Ancestors.  This blog is written from the Viewpoint of an Adoptee.  Allowing the Ancestors to guide me in my research to discover who I am by understanding the family that birthed me and the family that adopted me.  This is a multi-ethnic blog in the areas of Native American, Latino & African American History.

The Family History Fairy
http://familyhistoryfairy.wordpress.com/
Blog type: Individual family history

My name is Dochiny Wade. It’s pronounced DOT-chin-nee, at least in the way we Americanized it.

My dad got the name from Thailand where he served a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He no longer practices religion but I am grateful for this name and how it’s a part of the Thai culture that meant so much to my dad. (He even introduced us to Thai food. YUM!) The story goes that my dad loved the name and wanted to name one of his daughters Dochiny. My mom didn’t want her child to be made fun of and she insisted on normal, American names for her children. But by the time the had me (I’m the youngest of four kids) my mom gave in and said name her whatever you want. So here I am.

I’m a SAHM with an awesome hubby and three young kids who keep me busy. I love my monkeys but unfortunately that means I don’t get a ton of time to do genealogy and family history.

The purpose of my blog (at least at this time) is twofold. I want to keep a record of my growth in genealogy and I want to give other beginners a taste of the fun that can come from doing genealogy and family history.

I’m sure this is already obvious, but this blog is still in its infant stages. I hope to continually improve, tweak, and add more as I get more comfortable in the world of genealogy blogging.

© 2013, copyright Thomas MacEntee

There are 3 newly-discovered genealogy and family-history related blogs that we’ve located this week. Remember to try and help out these new blogs by:

• using any follow feature listed on the blog
• adding them to your blog reader
• adding a comment on their blog saying “hi” and “welcome”

Here are this week’s new listings:

DutchGenie
http://dutchgenie.net/wordpress/news/
Blog type: Dutch genealogy, Individual family history

In 1969 my husband and I came to the US for three years. We are still here, that’s the way it goes.

I have been doing genealogy for about 30 years. It all started when my daughter had to do a genealogy project for 4H. That got me started, and I haven’t stopped since. And after I retired, it became an almost full-time hobby.

Over the years my interests broadened. I started with the genealogy of my husband and myself (surnames: Broekman, Koch, Gast, De Haan, and ten Bruggencate), all in the Netherlands. Then the kids got married and there were grandchildren, and I added the in-laws to the mix (surnames: Seidler, Tiffany, Richstein, Edelman, Vo, Nguyen), mostly in the US, although they came to the US at vastly different times, and from very diverse places. You can find these in the Ancestors of my grandchildren.

The descendants of Harmen ten Bruggencate (c. 1560) were added as a different project, because it seemed like fun to collect them all (of course, they are also all related to me). Who would have guessed there were that many.

From there it was only a short step to the family reconstructions in Almelo. As both the Gasts and the ten Bruggencates lived in Almelo for over 300 years (and some of them still live around there), it seems like most of Almelo was also related.

I live in Radburn, which is a National Historic Landmark. The 1930 census inspired me to setup a database to document the early inhabitants. Not ancient history, but very interesting.

My volunteer work for the Genealogical Society of Bergen County had me looking for obituaries to fulfill patron requests. I started collecting those of the “Hollanders,” people born in the Netherlands, who had emigrated to Bergen and Passaic County in New Jersey, and figuring out their ancestry.

So there you have it. Hope this site will be of use to you. Leave me a note if you have questions or remarks.

MitziSwisher.com
http://mitziswisher.com/
Blog type: Individual family history, Kentucky genealogy

I realize that is quite a list of interests running across the top of my blog – at first glance it probably looks like a lot of barely related randomness, actually. But, there is a method to my madness – I swear! Let me start at the beginning, and maybe I can help make sense of it all…

In the spring of 2012, out of sheer curiosity (and after watching one too many episodes of Who Do You Think You Are), I joined Ancestry.com to see what I could find out about my family tree. Little did I know that it was the first step of what now looks to be a very long journey, that will culminate not only in a (hopefully) correct accounting of my genealogy, but also in a historical novel based on the lives of my 5x great grandparents, Ambrose and Ailsey Coffee.

I’ve wanted to write a book since I was a kid, but I never had an idea, never found a story that I felt was mine – and mine alone – to tell. The more I learned about the life that Ambrose Coffee led in the early days of Kentucky, the more interested I got. He came from Ireland as an indentured servant at the age of 12, joined the Virginia Militia, and ended up at Boonesborough, where he fought with the one and only Daniel Boone. There is even an amazing story about how he was shot at during the siege at the fort in 1778 – he walked away with 14 bullet holes in his clothes, but not a scratch on his body!

All that is fascinating enough, but even more interesting, at least to me, is that while I have a first name for his wife, I have no history for her. There are a few theories floating around, but nothing concrete – nothing that can be verified with absolute certainty. While she isn’t the only “brick wall” on my family tree, for some reason she has really captured my imagination – her husband’s life is somewhat well documented, which is a blessing, but her life must have been equally as interesting, yet we have no documentation of it at all (at least not that I have found, as of yet). Other than the fact that she was Ambrose’s wife, and they had 9 children together, she is a mystery.

The little part of me that has always wanted to write a book began to poke me repeatedly.

“There’s a story to tell here, lady! You’ve always loved historical fiction, so here you go, there’s no reason in the world not to do it. I don’t want to hear about how you don’t have time – make time. Oh and by the way, you better start a blog about it all too – the research for it is going to be intensive, so you might as well share it as you go along. And don’t forget, you’ve never written a book before, so you have a TON to learn about writing – you might as well share that stuff as you go along too. Now get to work!”

Boy that writer part of me sure has an attitude… so here I am!

Here’s a little breakdown of what I plan to talk about here on the blog, just to give you a general idea. All is subject to change, and my own whims, of course.

Historical Fiction – I’ve always loved reading it, but now that I want to write it, I am reading it even more. I figure there is no better way to learn than to read what other people have done and take what I can from it. I’ll be doing book reviews, and sharing whatever sites and resources I come across that might appeal to other historical fiction fans.

Writing Fiction – I’m a novel writing newbie, so as I go along I’ll be talking about the ups and downs of writing my first book, and sharing what I learn along the way. This will likely include lots of reviews of, and discussion about, books on writing – my library of them is already off to a great start and I expect it will only grow!

Indie Publishing – My inclination as of now is that I will be publishing the book myself when it is finished. So, I will be dipping my toes in the water of independent publishing – I want to learn how it works, read what is out there that is being published by independent authors, etc. etc.

Coffee Family Ancestry & Genealogy – I want to make sure all the research I do on my Coffee family ancestry gets put out there for other Coffee researchers to find. I am so grateful for everyone who has already done work on it, and have shared what they know! I have to do the same. I’ll likely be talking about genealogy in general too, for those of you out there who have gotten bit by the bug like I have, or think you might want to.

Kentucky History – My book will be set in 18th century Kentucky, and there is a LOT to learn about this fascinating time and place in American History. Believe me, I had very little knowledge of it before I figured out my ancestors played a role in it, but once I started to discover all that was going on back then, I was hooked!

Etc. Etc. Etc. – Because, you know – it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want…

Slavery and The Bryan Family
http://slaveryandthebryanfamily.blogspot.com
Blog type: African-American family history, Individual family history

Throughout my Bryan family research, I have heard of or seen references to slaves owned by the Bryan family. From family letters, it appeared that the Bryans were a kind, loving, and close-knit family. They were hard workers, active in the Methodist church, and proponents of education. The Bryan family plantation was void of columns and southern charm. Found in the book Louisiana Plantation Homes, Colonial and Antebellum by W. Darrell Overdyke, the Bryan plantation home was a two room dogtrot log cabin. I had hoped that the Bryans were benevolent slave owners, but have learned that not all were caring and compassionate. To the descendants of persons enslaved by the Bryan family, I hope that you will share your research and stories.

I have created this blog as I cannot imagine researching families without the possibility of birth dates and last names. The first names and birth dates were found in a transcription of a bible once owned by the Reddick Bryan family. Additional names were found in Reddick Bryan’s probate record and in deed records. I have added anecdotal information based on census records.

I begin this blog with records of 43 enslaved persons. These persons will be listed in possible family groups. Most records cited were found in Northwest Louisiana where my Bryan family settled in 1838. I will add to this blog as more information becomes available. On the 1840 census, Reddick Bryan reported owning eight slaves indicating that the majority of the slaves that he owned at his death in 1864 were acquired or born in Louisiana.

© 2013, copyright Thomas MacEntee