(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) About a week ago, in my post Follow Friday: Routine Maintenance, I mentioned that I planned to check all of my links and do some maintenance on my blog. In a comment to my post Greta Koehl of Greta's Genealogy Bog said, "I need to put up more of the links I regularly use. I have intended to do this for quite a while, but have not gotten around to it. I find the links on other blogs very helpful and wish more people had links on their blogs." I agree with Greta wholeheartedly on this. I too find the links on people's geneablogs very helpful. If I find a blogger who has discovered something via a link I find particularly interesting or would be useful to my research I add it to my blog.
When I updated my template back in the spring, one of the things I looked for was a template that offered the ability to add a number of links. I use my blog not only as my blog but as my web page as well. I write my blog posts, read the geneablogs I follow, and use my links section as a gateway to the resources I use on a regular basis. One stop shopping so to speak.
More important than the "big" databases that everyone uses, at least I think, are those local, regional, ethnic, and sometimes quirky resources that I might not know about otherwise. A while back Apple of Apple's Tree, in her post David, Daniel, Donald!, mentioned Old Fulton Postcards which covers newspapers from the state of New York. While most of my research centers around Polish, French-Canadian, and New England sources, I occasionally research New York family/ancestors. All I could say was wow when I checked Old Fulton Postcards! What a gold mine of information. I found information there that I hadn't found elsewhere. I promptly added Old Fulton Postcards to my list of links.
Tip for the Day: Check out the links at the bottom of my blog. Maybe you'll discover something new and useful to your research. Share your favorite links by adding them to your blog. Maybe you'll help another geneablogger discover new information as well.
Other Posts You Might Like:
Tuesday's Tip: A Tale of Two Indexers
Tuesday's Tip: "Ask a Librarian" Service at Your Public Library
Heritage Zen's Big Reveal: My New Template
Letters and Photos and Stuff, Oh My!: Sorting Through a Loved One's Estate (Part 1)
Mystery Monday: Yet Another Polish Wedding...
(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) This is a beautiful photo, and once again I have no idea who the bride and groom are. As for clues regarding the photo's origin, my guess is that it was taken around 1920. The wedding was probably performed at St. Mary's Church (Our Lady of Czestochowa) in Worcester, MA. The bride and the groom were probably members of Worcester's Polish community.
If you have or had family in the Polish community in Worcester, MA at the early part of the twentieth century please take a look. Check out my other mystery wedding photos as well. I'd love to put a name to a face. I'd especially love to find a relative of one of these happy couples, someone who doesn't have a photo of their ancestor's wedding, and send them a copy.
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: How Do You Manage?
(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) This week John Newmark of Transylvanian Dutch talks about rethinking and reprioritizing his time and blogging activities in his post Changes/Adjustments. This post really hit home with me. As the mom of a young child it's something that I struggle with on a daily basis. I've only posted once this week due to family commitments, activities, must-do yard work, and a slew of appointments of one sort or another. Research, correspondence, social media, library time, blogging time, blog reading time, oh yeah, and that life thing. Sometimes I feel like I'm sinking faster than I'm swimming. In my post Follow Friday: Happy New Year! I outlined the priorities that are most important to me. While I have a routine of daily activities, sometimes I just don't feel like I'm getting everything done that I want to get done. Is it time to let go or just organize better? How do you prioritize and schedule your time? Do you only do e-mail and facebook at certain times of the day/week? When do you do research? When do you blog and how often? How do you limit yourself? I don't do Twitter, though I am interested. I don't want to start one more thing I can't keep up with.
My question to you is, how do you manage your activities? Give me some advice. Throw me a lifeline, please...
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: California Dreamin'
Follow Friday: Who's Following You?
Amanuensis Monday: Frank L. Naramore Obituary
Tombstone Tuesday: Jacob Riis, Riverside Cemetery, Barre, MA
My question to you is, how do you manage your activities? Give me some advice. Throw me a lifeline, please...
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: California Dreamin'
Follow Friday: Who's Following You?
Amanuensis Monday: Frank L. Naramore Obituary
Tombstone Tuesday: Jacob Riis, Riverside Cemetery, Barre, MA
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Costume Month Continues...
(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) In case there is any doubt, I am not a natural blond. This photo of me was taken in November of 1985 when I was performing in a stage production of Babes in Arms. My character was based on the character played by June Preisser (Well, except for the acrobatics. Click on the link to see what I mean.) in the film Babes in Arms with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Yes, my character was the mean girl who was trying to steal Mickey away from Judy. Every Mickey and Judy movie has to have at least one...
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: Routine Maintenance
(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) Usually this doesn't happen. Certainly not often. This week as I was trying to catch up on my reading, I ran into a number of dead links on several geneablogs. It surprised me, because I think by nature genealogy folk are a rather persnickety lot, myself included. I will say from personal experience it is hard to keep maintenance up, particularly as you have more posts under your belt.
That being said, not only do I use my blog for sharing stories, tips, ideas, and what have you, I also use it as my personal website. You may have noticed I have a number of links at the bottom of my blog. These are links that I use on a regular basis. I have either mentioned them in a post or plan to mention them at some point in time, or I just think they are great resources other people may want to check out. This week I realized it's been a while since I checked my links to make sure they are all still active.
Going back to that persnickety thing again, I've decided to take some time this weekend do some routine maintenance. I'm planning to check and reorganize my links, add new ones, and try out a few new features. I also think I need to consider a regular maintenance schedule to keep everything in good working order. I don't want to be caught one link short of a connection if you know what I'm saying.
Do you do regular maintenance? How often? Also, if you notice another blogger with a dead link (or several), what do you do? Personally, I would like to know, but I don't know how others feel. Would it be presumptuous for me to bring it to that blogger's attention? What do you think?
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: Who's Following You?
Follow Friday: AHA (American Historical Association) Today
Madness Monday: Splog Busters, Or My Experiment to Fight Splog
Follow Friday: Walking Pictures, Ancestry, and Free Stuff
That being said, not only do I use my blog for sharing stories, tips, ideas, and what have you, I also use it as my personal website. You may have noticed I have a number of links at the bottom of my blog. These are links that I use on a regular basis. I have either mentioned them in a post or plan to mention them at some point in time, or I just think they are great resources other people may want to check out. This week I realized it's been a while since I checked my links to make sure they are all still active.
Going back to that persnickety thing again, I've decided to take some time this weekend do some routine maintenance. I'm planning to check and reorganize my links, add new ones, and try out a few new features. I also think I need to consider a regular maintenance schedule to keep everything in good working order. I don't want to be caught one link short of a connection if you know what I'm saying.
Do you do regular maintenance? How often? Also, if you notice another blogger with a dead link (or several), what do you do? Personally, I would like to know, but I don't know how others feel. Would it be presumptuous for me to bring it to that blogger's attention? What do you think?
Other Posts You Might Like:
Follow Friday: Who's Following You?
Follow Friday: AHA (American Historical Association) Today
Madness Monday: Splog Busters, Or My Experiment to Fight Splog
Follow Friday: Walking Pictures, Ancestry, and Free Stuff
Not So Wordless Wednesday: It's Costume Month at Heritage Zen!
(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) Cynthia Shenette) This is the first photo in my line up of Wordless Wednesday photos with people dressed in costumes of one sort or another. I have lots of photos of people in costumes, and given that Halloween is a big day to dress up, I thought October would be a good month to present a small sampling of costume shots from my photo collection.This is a good one to start the month off with as Jasia at Creative Gene reminded me that October is Polish Heritage Month! I have no idea what the event was, but the words written in the right-hand corner, Chapka '45, give me a clue. I looked up the word chapka, and apparently it's a Polish military hat. My guess is Chapka '45 was some kind of a Polish celebration in Worcester, MA.
My mom, Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, is the girl on the far right. I don't know who the other three girls in the photo are. My guess is the photo may have been taken at the Worcester Auditorium, given the brick wall and all of the pulleys and cables in the background. The reason I know this is back in the late 1970s and 1980s I performed in a number of shows at the Worcester Auditorium. Ah, but that's next week's picture. Stay tuned...
Other Posts You Might Like:
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: It's Polka Time!
Meditation: Family History
What's In A Name (An Ongoing Series): Kowalewski
Postcards from the Edge: Genealogy Road Trippin'
Tuesday's Tip: "Ask a Librarian" Service at Your Public Library
(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) Have you used the "Ask a Librarian" service at your public library? It's a wonderful service offered by many public libraries around the country. If you haven't used it I suggest you try it out, and if you have I'd love to hear about your experience. I used it recently when I was looking for some statistics on the population of Katowice, Poland for my post Trip to Poland, 1937 (An Ongoing Series): Katowice.
I'm a librarian myself, and B.C. (Before Child) spent 11 years in reference. Believe me, reference librarians live for this stuff. I usually do my own research, because I love doing it, but one night was at home and knew because of scheduling issues I wasn't going to be able to get down to the library for several days. I had a brilliant thought. Why not check out the "Ask a Librarian" service at the public library? I filled out their online form around 10:00 p.m., and bada bing bada boom, the next morning there was my answer in an e-mail response. I followed it up with another question and promptly got a second reply. I love those people.
Here are my tips for using your "Ask a Librarian" service successfully:
~ read and follow the directions for an e-mail query
~ provide as much information as you can to give the librarian a real idea of what you are looking for, but also try to be as precise and succinct as possible
~ tell the librarian what resources you've already checked for information
~ be patient as sometimes it may take a day or two or even a week or two to receive your answer
~ be polite, and a follow-up thank you e-mail is always nice
Be aware that some questions lend themselves to e-mail queries more readily than others. My population question was pretty straightforward. Librarians may not, or in some cases will not, do extensive research for you, at least free of charge. If you provide an exact citation for an obit they will probably be able to help you out. If you say, "I think my John Smith died sometime in 1902," but you're not sure of the particulars and there isn't an easily accessible index to the newspaper where the obit might have appeared, they may not be able to help you. Believe it or not, not all old newspapers are indexed or online. Take some of my local Worcester, MA papers for example. Librarians simply don't have time to do extensive research for every patron. That being said, "Ask a Librarian" is a wonderful service. Try it out.
Now I'm off to do research. I live for this stuff...
Other Posts You Might Like:
Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women
What's In A Name (An Ongoing Series): Chenette
Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
What's In A Name (An Ongoing Series): Radziewicz
I'm a librarian myself, and B.C. (Before Child) spent 11 years in reference. Believe me, reference librarians live for this stuff. I usually do my own research, because I love doing it, but one night was at home and knew because of scheduling issues I wasn't going to be able to get down to the library for several days. I had a brilliant thought. Why not check out the "Ask a Librarian" service at the public library? I filled out their online form around 10:00 p.m., and bada bing bada boom, the next morning there was my answer in an e-mail response. I followed it up with another question and promptly got a second reply. I love those people.
Here are my tips for using your "Ask a Librarian" service successfully:
~ read and follow the directions for an e-mail query
~ provide as much information as you can to give the librarian a real idea of what you are looking for, but also try to be as precise and succinct as possible
~ tell the librarian what resources you've already checked for information
~ be patient as sometimes it may take a day or two or even a week or two to receive your answer
~ be polite, and a follow-up thank you e-mail is always nice
Be aware that some questions lend themselves to e-mail queries more readily than others. My population question was pretty straightforward. Librarians may not, or in some cases will not, do extensive research for you, at least free of charge. If you provide an exact citation for an obit they will probably be able to help you out. If you say, "I think my John Smith died sometime in 1902," but you're not sure of the particulars and there isn't an easily accessible index to the newspaper where the obit might have appeared, they may not be able to help you. Believe it or not, not all old newspapers are indexed or online. Take some of my local Worcester, MA papers for example. Librarians simply don't have time to do extensive research for every patron. That being said, "Ask a Librarian" is a wonderful service. Try it out.
Now I'm off to do research. I live for this stuff...
Other Posts You Might Like:
Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women
What's In A Name (An Ongoing Series): Chenette
Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Chenette, Civil War Soldier
What's In A Name (An Ongoing Series): Radziewicz
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