Inspiring Blogs 300The months march on, and April is here, with Easter only a couple of weeks away.

During March I read SOOOOOOO many fabulous blog posts. People are getting really creative, and informative in what they write about.

So this month we cover everything from headstone rubbings, to wondering where genealogy conferences will be in 5 years time, to the culture shock you feel when you suddenly have to research in a new country. Then there’s posts about saying thankyou and being appreciative, to ‘context’ and the role that plays in research,  and even one of what to do with all that ‘junk’ that you want to keep but don’t have room for, and a bunch more.

I know that I’ve mentioned before (each month) that I find that reading blog posts helps me keep up with the latest news, products as well as what’s happening in general in the world of genealogy. And if you happen to already follow me on Twitter, and to some extent Google+, you already know that I like to share with you the interesting things I read.

I know I really enjoyed reading each and every one of these posts, and have found them useful in many ways, aAnd I hope you do too.

“A Conference Manifesto” for the Genealogy World
Amy not only makes a great statement, “If you want to see where the genealogy field will be in five years, look at what the library field is doing today”, but she also follows it up saying that “One of the issues where I’ve noticed different speeds is conference planning. Trends are changing overall, but they haven’t trickled down to the genealogy world yet.” Read the full article …

Of Being Important
The US magazine Family Tree Magazine came up with a list of ’40 Mavericks of Genealogy’ earlier this year, and Janet Hovorka was named as one of them. This is her response to that, and you’ll find that it has quite a different flavour to others who blogged about making the list. Read the full article …

Let’s Have An Attitude of Gratitude
Tessa Keough is one of the contributors to the Worldwide Genealogy blog, and in this post she says that while most genealogy folk are polite, and courteous, we do need a reminder from time to time about our manners. She’s written this in response to comments that followed the “40 Mavericks of Genealogy” list. It is well written, and definitely worth a read. Read the full article …

Ancestral Context
I seem to end up on Tony Proctor’s Parallax View blog from time to time, as he does come up with some interesting topics. Take this one for instance, he starts off by saying … “When researching family history, genealogists put great emphasis on “proof”, and substantiating our conclusions. This establishes a sound basis for objective aspects such as lineage, occupations, residence, etc., but what about the more subjective aspects? For instance, why they moved from A to B, or why so-and-so married so-and-so.” Sound interesting? It is. Read the full article …

Organization and Preservation Tips for Genealogy Spring Clean
Scott Phillips of “Onward To Our Past” was a guest bloggers on the GenealogyBank blog, and wrote this post. While down here in Oz we in Autumn at the moment, the northern hemisphere folk are in the middle of spring, and that tends to make people think about spring cleaning … and in this case, Scott talks about spring cleaning your genealogy as well. Read the full article …

Genealogical Culture Shock
Diane Hewson has written a fabulous post for the Worldwide Genealogy blog, where she talks about taking your research overseas and being hit by a culture shock. Different countries have different records, different rules, and different customs, all of which are important to understand to help understand your ancestors history. Read the full article …

Life, Death and Genealogy on the internet
James Tanner of the Genealogy’s Star blog seems to make it in to my Inspiring Blog posts each month, and he’s here again with this one. In this one he decided to check out if you “really document any one person’s life entirely from sources created by the Internet phenomena and ignore “traditional” genealogical sources … by relying solely on social networking websites?” You can read his findings by reading the full article …

Five “CopyWrongs” of Historical Writing
Elizabeth Shown Mills author of Evidence Explained, which is the bible for citing your sources, has written an easy-to-understand article on Coryright and CopyWrongs. Plagarism or as calls it “intellectual pickpocketing” or “the P-word” is not something any of us set out to do, but it can happen even without realising. She takes readers through the five most common forms of plagiarism. Read the full article …

Foil vs Chalk – and you can always use the leftovers fixing dinner!
When you visit a cemetery what do you do when you can’t read the headstone? Do you just move all the weeds away from it, and figure that’s as good as you’ll get? Do you whip out the material or tracing paper and wax? Or just get as close as you can to try and make out the letters? Well, here’s another option to try for your next headstone rubbing. Read the full article …

My Digital Filing System for Genealogy (Windows)
We’re all told when we start our research how important it is to get organized, because the paperswork snowballs so quickly. That is true. But we must’nt be remiss with our digital files either. PC, laptop, phone, tablet, we have access to data anywhere and everywhere – but do you have it all filed in a central place so you can find it? Jenny tells you how she manages her digital filing system. Read the full article …

11 Tips to Research to a Homes Interior
When people think of ‘house history’ they think of England and houses hundreds of years old, but Australia is starting to get in on that act of house history thanks to the tv show “Who’s Been Sleeping In My House”. But there is more to house histories than the external form of it as the Houstory guys talk about in this post. Read the full article …

Tools to Preserve Oral History
You’ve gone to effort of recording an interview with your family member. But now, what. What tools do you use to preserve oral history? In a guest post by Thomas MacEntee on the Saving memories Forever site, he gives you valuable tips on what you should do with your oral history to preserve it. Read the full article …

Ignoring Informants
When you receive a certificate, I’m sure you’re like me and your focus goes straight to the details in the middle. The names, the parents names, the cause of death or the details of the birth. But Genealogy Tip of the Day reminds us to be sure to check the informants. Read the full article …

Junk vs family heirloom: How do you determine?
Dan from “Houstory” asks an important question “How do you filter the clutter from the keepsakes?” We’ve all been in the situation where we have to pack up and move, where we simply cannot believe the amount of ‘junk’ that we’ve managed to accumulate. While some things are easy to throw out, many others make it into the “I-want-to-keep-but-don’t-have-room-for-it” pile. Dan tells us what we can do with these items. Read the full story …