Saturday Serendipity (January 6, 2018)

Following a slight hiatus last week to celebrate the New Year (and mark my blogiversary on New Year's Eve), Saturday Serendipity returns this week with the following reading recommendations .  .  . 

1.  If you are a member of NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society) and receive their quarterly magazine, American Ancestors, in hard copy or online, then you should be sure to read "How I Lost My Alcock, Bradfield & Whitehead Ancestors" by Patricia Law Hatcher in the most recent issue, vol. 18, no. 4 Winter 2018.  The article is a well-written example of how even very experienced genealogists can take a wrong turn and how diligence and devotion to "getting it right" results in both gains and losses.  [If you do not belong to NEHGS, consider joining and in the meantime see if your local library has a copy of American Ancestors.  More than New England is covered by American Ancestors!]               

2.  I do not tweet and never have. Even at the doubled length of 280 characters, I tend to think of Twitter as a very flawed means of communication that is degrading the use of our immeasurably rich language. I also have wondered if and how the increasingly never-ending accumulation of tweets would ever be worthy or capable of being captured for future generations.  It seems that the Library of Congress has also spent energy wondering the same thing and they have arrived at a decision. Read at Smithsonian Magazine online why the LOC has concluded that tweets have become too numerous and too long and so only tweets of "historic value" will be saved. One must wonder what the criteria will be for historically valuable tweets and -- for those genealogists who do tweet -- what tweets would be worth preserving as part of a genealogy.

3.  The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS mentioned a very interesting DNA story this week that was caught on CNN. Two men who have been friends for 60 years made an amazing discovery when one of them began using DNA tests to search for his biological father. Read the full story here.          
        
4.  James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog has posted Part Three in his series "From Whence and to Thither -- Understanding Migration Patterns" here.  This is an interesting and informative mini-series and you can access Part One here and Part Two here.             
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Copyright 2018, John D. Tew

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