Saturday Serendipity (October 1, 2016)

Saturday Serendipity returns this week with the following recommended items of interest . . .

1.  All good things must come to an end . . . and so it is with the excellent Rhode Island genealogy research series by Diane Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family blog. The eighth and last installment in Diane's "8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research" was posted yesterday and it deals with "Everything Else" not covered in Parts 1 through 7. See part 8 here and get direct links to the other parts in the series if you have not seen them previously.     

2.   James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog posted a thoughtful and useful post about the genealogical value of Wikipedia research and the definitions of "primary" and "secondary" sources. You can read his piece here.
  
3.  Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist blog devoted an entire post this past week to a recommendation to read a post by her friend and colleague, Debbie Parker Wayne, titled "Respect and Rights." If Judy devotes an entire post to a reading recommendation, one must pay attention . . . and so I took Judy's advice and read Debbie's post. I concur with Judy's recommendation. Read the post at Deb's Delvings in Genealogy blog here. It addresses respect for the beliefs of others and how that might place limits on the results of genealogy research. 

4.  Somewhat apropos of the subject raised by Judy and Debbie's posts, The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS linked to a very interesting story about a woman from Pennsylvania who disappeared in 1986 and a married woman with one daughter in Texas who committed suicide in 2010. Investigation by a former Social Security investigator and a forensic genealogist determined that the two women were one and the same person. Read the full story here. 

5.  And how about THIS one . . . The Weekly Genealogist also linked to a story out of Australia where DNA linked an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on an Australian beach to Thomas Jefferson and Native Americans. Read the fascinating full story here . . . and learn the nice surprise ending! [Note:  This story involves the same forensic genealogist as the story immediately above -- Colleen Fitzpatrick!] 

6.  Did you know that October is both Family History Month and American Archives Month? UpFront With NGS blog posted about both events and provided information about participatory contests you can enter as part of the celebrations.  Follow the links provided above for details.    

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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