google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html Monday Morning Mentions | The Armchair Genealogist

Monday Morning Mentions



Monday Morning Mentions is an opportunity to reflect on the events of the week at the Armchair Genealogist and in the blogging and book community. Over my morning cappuccino, I will take the opportunity to share with you some of my favourite blogs posts this week and give a nod to my peers.

You can also find me on Facebook. Stop by and leave a message. I often will link some great finds there as well. You can also follow me on twitter at @LynnPal or my twitter paperThe Armchair Genealogist Journal.

At the Armchair Genealogist this week, posts included the following:

Tuesday's Tip - Rootstech Learning Continues
The Family History Writing Challenge - One Week Update
Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records - Now Online
The Many Faces of Rootstech
Seven Tips to Meet the Challenge

Recent Posts over at The Family History Writing Challenge include:

6 Tips for the Time-Starved Family History Writer
Building Your Ancestor's World
Fleshing Out the Story
Seven Tips to Meet the Challenge


Internet Genealogy – a great genealogy or internet tip that will benefit any armchair genealogist.

This week’s mention:

Have signed up yet for Barry's Lunch'n Learn Series. Barry J.Ewell of MyGenshare, creates video to get help you learn family history. When you register for Barry's Lunch'n Learn Series, every two weeks, you receive free learning and reference resources you can view, or download covering a broad range of genealogical topics. Be sure to see this week's video Using a Colour-Coded Filing System, comes with a free downloadable PDF.


Writing Family History - great advice or information on writing your family history.

This week’s mention:

Biff at Stories to Tell gives us some food for thought in this week's Who's the Audience for Your Memoir or Family History. Watch for Biff's guest post this week on The Family History Writing Challenge.


I've never been shy about telling people how much I love Scrivener. I thought Joanna's Penn post this week Scrivener: 3 Reasons You Should Use It For Your Book at The Creative Penn was a wonderful look at how Scrivener can help you write your family history.


New Genealogy Blog – we will tip our hat to a newcomer who impresses us right out of the box

This week’s mention:

A beautiful blog - Past-Present-Future by Smadar Belkind Gerson grabbed my attention right out of the gate. First a beautiful, clean and easy to read blog. I am already captivated by Smadar's family history and look forward to reading her book in which she shares the personal eyewitness accounts told by her Great-Grandmother, Stored Treasures. Please welcome Smadar to the genealogy blogging community.


Books that Move and Matter - each week we will feature an ebook or print book with the family historian in mind. It may come as a great source of information, for research or writing or playing to our historical interests, or may just be a great read I think genealogists will love.


In the Blood (A Genealogical Crime Mystery) Featured in 'Best Books of 2011' Written by author Steve Robinson, this book sells on Kindle for $2.99 or in paperback for $14.95. In the Blood was featured in "Best Books of 2011".

The description provided below by Amazon.com intrigued me and I have since added it to my Kindle line-up of "Must Reads"

Family history was never supposed to be like this…
A dark secret locked in the past. A family historian trying against the odds to unlock it.
When American genealogist, Jefferson Tayte, accepted his latest assignment, he had no idea it might kill him. But while murder was never part of the curriculum, he is kidding himself if he thinks he can walk away from this one.

Driven by the all-consuming irony of being a genealogist who doesn’t know who his own parents are, Tayte soon finds that the assignment shares a stark similarity to his own struggle. Someone has gone to great lengths to erase an entire family bloodline from recorded history and he’s not going home until he’s found out why. After all, if he’s not good enough to find this family, how can he ever expect to be good enough to someday find his own?


Set in Cornwall, England, past and present, Tayte's research centres around the tragic life of a young Cornish girl, a writing box, and the discovery of a dark family secret that he believes will lead him to the family he is looking for. Trouble is, someone else is looking for the same answers and they will stop at nothing to find them.

Here is a biography from Steve Robinson's author's page on Amazon. I believe it gives us some great insight into this author and his book.

"Steve Robinson was born in coastal Kent, UK, and now lives in a small village near London on the Essex/Hertfordshire border. His passion for writing began at the age of sixteen when he was first published in a computer adventure magazine and he has been writing by way of a creative hobby ever since. When a career in software and telecommunications ended in redundancy, he began to write full time. In the Blood, his debut novel, was the result.

I write for the mystery/thriller genre with a family history angle, having become interested in genealogy as a means to tell the story of 'In the Blood' and perhaps because I have no idea who my own maternal grandfather is - which is something that has always intrigued me. He was an American GI billeted in England during the second world war. A few years after the war ended he went back to America leaving a young family behind and no further contact was made. I traced him through his enlistment record to Arkansas and know very little else about him. Perhaps this is also why my lead character is an American genealogist."


You can find more new genealogy bloggers at Thomas' list of New Genealogy Blogs at Geneabloggers.

For other great reads, Randy at Genea-Musings offers the Best of the Genea-Blogs

Consider Julie Cahill's Friday Finds at Genblog.

Dan Curtis, Professional Personal Historian always puts together some interesting selections in Monday's Link Round-Up.

Deb Ruth at Adventures in Genealogy offers Follow Friday Gems.

Have a great genealogy week, keep researching and writing!