Links 7.19.10

On the road .. but with wireless! Blog posting will probably be lighter than usual this week, but since I’m at a family reunion, who knows?

DNA basics: Ever consider participating in a DNA surname study? If you’re wondering about what’s involved and what you can find out, this article by Katharine Garstka is a nice introduction to the idea and process.

Fresh ideas: Via the Jewish Chronicle online, exciting news: JewishGen has teamed up with Tel Aviv-based My Heritage.com in an initiative designed as  a boost of fresh energy for the Family Tree of the Jewish People project (FTJP). My Heritage.com is a genealogical social networking site in 36 languages, and its holdings of 15 million family trees should certainly generate leads out there. More at the JewishGen blog.

For beginners: I always like to see newspaper-based genealogy columns and blogs. Seasoned researchers may not always find them exciting, but it’s great to see more starting points in the news stream. Two more that I noticed this week: Your Alabama Genealogy and New Jersey-based Tracing Your Roots.

My ancestor is a relic: Australia, Australia. Can you guys tell genealogy stories or what? Case in point: This article about one woman’s conflicted feelings about the presence of a real live (um, deceased) martyr in the family tree. I don’t know how I’d feel about my gggggg-uncle’s head being venerated as a relic, I really don’t. I do know I couldn’t resist a good ancestor story, so I’d certainly write about it, too.

---