"I set out to find my great-great-grandfather armed only with a tattered obituary and a sturdy shovel." This statement was #5 in Chris Dunham's (The Genealogue) Top Ten Worst Ways to Begin a Family History. As usual, this brought tears to my eyes.

"Should your family information be a secret?" is the question Larry Lehmer of "Passing It On" poses. I'd have to answer his question with "sometimes."  I'll never forget the look on my white-haired mother's face when I told her that her saintly mother had her first child "a few months early."  Some things are best left unsaid. Larry also recently discovered that he is actually a very good dancer.

Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississipi has collected "Some Links of Interest" to recent interesting articles written by genea-bloggers. No one apparently knows a good term to describe the end of a genealogical line, or possibly they are hesitant to comment on "petered out."

Denise Olson of "Family Matters" writes about enjoying reading about the women of the Civil War. As the lives and contributions of women were often omitted from the history books, I'll agree with Denise that these stories are vital to our understanding history.  One tidbit--when we think of nurses in the Civil War, women come to mind.  This is completely incorrect.  Male nurses outnumbered female nurses 4 to 1, and yet we rarely read articles about their male counterparts.

Charlotte at "Apple's Tree," writes about "Five Blogs You May Have Missed," which are links to a mix of very intriguing history and genealogy blogs.

Another collector of blog links is Bill West of "West in New England." He raises an interesting question asking why more New Englanders are not blogging about genealogy and/or history.

Craig Manson of "Geneablogie" shares his own "Greatest Finds Ever."

Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family Historian writes about "The Horse Forecast," and a horse named Prince who forecasts the weather with great accuracy.  Hmmmm wow! The best my horse ever did was grow a heavy coat if the upcoming winter was going to be particularly cold.

Colleen at "The Oracle of OMcHodoy" announces her creation of a new blog called ""OMcHodoy Orations" where she will "record stories, lore, prompts, etc."  She's like input from the blogging community about the blog name, color, design etc. so lets help her out!

Tom MacEntee of "Destination: Austin Family" writes an intriguing article about civil rights and diversity. He describes the challenges he faced in terms of discrimination. His article was written in response to a challenge posed by Miriam Robbins at "AnceStories2: Stories of Me for my Descendants."

Lee Anders of "I Seek Dead People," poses the question, "Would I Seek Living People Too?" You'll have to read her article to discover the answer....

I am way way behind in writing for upcoming carnivals that I normally participate in.  For now I'll joyfully recognize the recent 39th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, posted at Creative Gene.  As usual Jasia does an amazing job of pulling all of these articles together in a cohesive way.

And last, but certainly not least, Nikki-Ann of "Nikki-ann" demonstrates some photographs she took using her spanking brand new mini photo studio" that is usually used with product photography (such as eBay, catalogs, etc.) Sweet!

Janice