Saturday Serendipity (May 9, 2020)

Below are a few suggested reads for your Mother's Day weekend (after celebrating your mother of course). 😀

1.   As we all await the development and distribution of a safe, reliable, effective and approved vaccine and/or therapeutic drug to save us from the ravages of COVID-19, today marks the 60th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug Enovid-10.  Enovid-10 was 100% effective and cost a mere 11 cents to produce.  It also had huge, far-reaching impacts on our social and cultural history.  You can read more about this drug and its impacts here (scroll down to the fifth entry).

2.   Jacqui Stevens, of A Family Tapestry blog, posted today about her experience with using DNA technology as a tool for filling in her family tree.  You can read her thoughts on the experience here.

3.   This week Randy Seaver, of Genea-Musings blog, posted an interesting piece titled "The Evolution of Obtaining Genealogy Images."  You can read the engaging post here. 

4.   Marian Wood, of Climing My Family Tree blog, especially loves the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses–find out why by going here.

5.   This week James Tanner, of Genealogy's Star blog, posted Parts 5 and 6 of his series on analyzing genealogical sources.  Go to the blog home page here and then scroll down to the posts of May 3rd and May 6th,  respectively.  Mr. Tanner also posted a piece titled, "Top Ten Problems with Online Family Trees for 2020."  You can read his Top 10 list by going here.

6.   Heather Rojo, of Nutfield Genealogy blog, just posted today her annual notice about participation in her wonderful Honor Roll Project.  If you are not yet aware of this very worthy and useful project, it is a means of capturing--and making available and searchable online--the names of men and women who participated in some way in the various wars and conflicts in which the U.S. has been involved.  The means of capture is to photograph and transribe the names on the numerous memorials around the country that honor these men and woman by publishing their names on statues, plaques, shrines, etc.  Heather has a new approach this year on how to participate given the exigencies of the pandemic.  You can still participate in 2020.  Go here and find out how. 

7.   Judy Russell, of The Legal Genealogist blog, posted another very informative piece about copyright law this week.  This most recent copyright post answers a reader's question about resposibilities in publishing transcriptions of letters and other materials sent to her great grandfather from his half sister.  Anyone with similar materials created by a family member will want to read this post and apply the rules explained by Judy.  You can read the post here.

8.   And finally, another interesting post by Peter Muise, of NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE blog.  This one is titled, "Snakes, Children, and the Human Soul: Ancient Folklore in New England."  You can read Peter's post here (unless you are ophidiophobic).   

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Copyright 2020, John D. Tew

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