Saturday, December 7, 2013

Saturday Serendipity (December 7, 2013)





Saturday Serendipity returns today after a brief hiatus for an out-of-town family Thanksgiving Day gathering for what was also my father's 91st birthday.  

After a return to work and a struggle to catch up with a week of missed blog surfing, here are a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list on this 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1.  Looking for that just right gift for your favorite genealogist?  Diane Boumenot at One Rhode Island Family gives you 50 Gifts for Genealogists.

2.  The background and status of the Personal Genome Service health testing offered by 23andMe is fully explained by Judy Russell at The Legal Genealogist

3.  For some lovely Christmas lighting photos you must stop by Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog and see Jana's  Christmas Lights On Temple Square -- and note that is just Part 1!

4.  Since I lived in Holyoke, Massachusetts for a couple of years when I was very young (and started school there in Kindergarden), I was sad when the blog disappeared right after May 2nd of this year.  Well, during my brief Thanksgiving hiatus, it's baaaack!  For anyone with an interest in the history of Holyoke and its immediate environs, take a visit to Holyoke, Mass.  It is largely a history site with a treasure trove of photographs, but as we all know, genealogy and local history are siblings -- if not fraternal twins.     

5.  At the risk of appearing self-promoting because two of my suggested submissions were mentioned, you should check out the poems selected for Bill West's 5th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge, which was posted Thanksgiving Day (during my recent hiatus).   Since this is my first year of blogging, I was not aware of Bill's challenge until this year.  It is a great idea and he has posted some nice selections that are well worth visiting and reading!    

6.  And speaking of shameless direct self-promotion, I humbly recommend on this 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, my Samaritan Sunday post of July 21, 2013 .  The post -- and the link provided there -- tell a very special story about a family's supreme loss at Pearl Harbor and the Good Samaritan who returned something of great meaning and importance to them many decades later. And also on this day of remembrance, see Barbara Poole's photos of the local tribute 
in Lowell, Massachusetts to the Pearl Harbor victims here on Life From The Roots

7.  Speaking of Life From The Roots and Barbara Poole its author, she provides a wonderful example of Yankee ingenuity and frugality in her recent post "I Have to Share . . . You Might Just Benefit" about her return to using Fold3.

8. And finally, I could fill several Saturday Serendipity posts with recommendations from one of my favorite web surfing stops, The Vault -- but it is best to serve courses one or two at a time at a feast lest one's guests quickly gorge themselves. So, today I'd like to recommend one lovingly humorous (yet extremely poignant) course for your consumption and enjoyment. You should really have a 
look at this four-minute 1942 home movie "Having a Baby" by Johnny and Betty Patterson. 
[Johnny Patterson died in 1945 in combat during a kamikaze attack on the USS Ticonderoga.]

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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2 comments:

  1. John, double thanks to you for mentioning my two posts. Every Saturday, I enjoy reading your list of favorites for the week, and it is especially nice when I see my friends mentioned as well. Happy Belated Birthday to your Dad, wow 91 years old, good for him.

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