Saturday Serendipity (October 8, 2016)

Here are a few recommended reads for this weekend . . .

1.  The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, always provides good and timely advice on copyright issues and her post of October 7th is no exception. Read Judy's post here where she explains the difference between posting a link to someone else's written product vs. copying and posting the written content itself.       

2.  I found two items posted this week on UpFront With NGS blog to be very interesting. One is about "Home Movie Day." It seems October 15th is Home Movie Day and I admit I had never heard of it before. It is an international event and provides an opportunity for the viewing and sharing of home movies. I do not have many home videos from when my sons were young, but I do have several that we view from time to time and really enjoy. I have an aunt and an uncle, however, who were really into making home movies on 8mm film back in the 1950s -- the kind where you were almost blinded by the bright lights during the filming. The Home Movie Day event sounds like a perfect time and place for folks to resurrect these aging pieces of family history and learn about ways to protect, restore, and share the movies. 
  
3.  The other item of interest at UpFront With NGS blog involves an app. Now I am what would probably be best described as a "low app use" kind of guy. I have something like 24 apps on my iPhone and almost all of them came preloaded on the phone. I use perhaps three or four of the 24 apps with any regularity. The rest of the apps merely decorate my phone. And now UpFront informs me about an app called "Clio." The app provides the ability to learn about the history of a place as you stand or walk around the place today. Read more about Clio here and get links to a video and download if interested.   

4.  For those of us who spend countless hours researching and assembling our genealogies, the issue of how to protect and preserve all our efforts is always with us and of utmost importance. Just contemplate for a moment losing all your current genealogical data and documents and once the cold shivers subside, you will realize you really need to always stay up to date and informed about ways to protect and preserve your efforts . . . and be reminded of the importance of doing so. This week James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog does the service of posting "10 Important Ways to Preserve Your Valuable Genealogical Documents and Records." Read the post and see his list here.    

5.  Barbara Poole of Life From the Roots blog posted a very interesting piece about the Concord, Massachusetts sculptor, Daniel Chester French. As always, Barbara illustrates her post with beautiful photos and this week the photos show the sculptor's estate and studio ("Chesterwood") in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Read and view Barbara's post here -- especially if you have ever been to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC!    

6.  From time to time I link to posts at the Wait But Why blog and the often profane (but thought provoking) writing of Tim Urban. This is one of those times and involves perhaps the seminal decision we almost all have to make at one time or another -- and it is a decision that is a foundational event for genealogy -- the question of whether to marry or not.  Read Tim Urban's illustrated rumination on the marriage question here . . . and yes it is profane in many ways.     

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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