Saturday Serendipity (October 28, 2017)

After a two week absence due to family matters, Saturday Serendipity returns this week with a few recommendations for reading this weekend  .  .  .

1.  If you believe you might descend from a Mayflower passenger, or if you even have a family tree indicating such a descent, but your descent has not been verified and approved by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD), then you might be interested in a service that is offered by NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society).  NEHGS is offering a Lineage Package whereby their Research Service staff will research, document, and verify your suspected Mayflower lineage if you already have the lineage, but need the supporting documentation and preparation of a membership application to the GSMD, they can provide those services for you too.  A free chart from NEHGS is provided that illustrates and documents your Mayflower descent once your application is completed. You can learn more about this service by contacting NEHGS at (888)296-3447) or by sending a Research Services Estimate request form available online here.                

2.  And speaking of NEHGS, The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of NEHGS noted this week an interesting piece in the Smithsonian blog about how deaths in Presidential families were mourned and memorialized. It is an illustrated post that you can read here.

3.  For users of Family Tree Maker (FTM2017), Russ Worthington of Family Tree Maker User blog has a post this week discussing whether you should link to a picture or use use FTM to make a copy and link from there when adding a picture to your tree.  You can read his answer and get a link to his previous post on the topic by going here.             
        
4.  "Better late than never," as they say. I am not sure how I missed this post by Marian Wood of Climbing My Family Tree blog about ten days ago, but it is an excellent idea for research to enlighten and provide context to your family history. Marian's tip?  Research places and not just names -- and Google Books can be a good place to start.  

5.  Looking for some good Halloween stories to share?  Bill West of West in New England blog continues his annual posts of Halloween tales from New England Folklore. You can read his most recent Halloween tale post here.  [Oh, and don't forget Bill's annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. The deadline is coming up on November 16th.] 

6.  You invest a lot of time and effort into your family history research. And you have quite probably taken the next important step of writing it up to clarify, summarize, and preserve all that work (or you keep meaning to). Why not consider sharing that work with others by entering a genealogy writing contest? UpFront With NGS blog posted this week about this very topic and shares links to the many contests out there for you to consider. You can read the post here.       
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _