Saturday, December 31, 2011

Wonderful Readers' Top Picks for 2011

As the sun sets on 2011, sit back and enjoy your top 12 picks at The Turning of Generations for this past year. According to Google Analytics these are the most viewed posts this year, so they really are the top pick of my Wonderful Readers.
  1. Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems. This particular series was about William Ballenger's Military Warrant file. Several individual posts in this series made the top 10 so I've combined this into one selection pointing you to the summary post which has links to the individual posts in the series. I was surprised this was so popular and I think we partly have Randy Seaver to thank for highlighting it in his weekly Best of the Genea-Blogs.
  2. Metadata, Image Files and Migration. Something we will want to think more about with some of our projects this coming year for The 21st Century Organized Family Historian (see #8 below). Nira Porter Chambliss of The Door Keepers provided a link in the comments to a really helpful article.
  3. 98th  Edition of COG - Document Analysis! Bessie Maud Passmore Birth Certificate. This post was actually published in October 2010 and for some reason continues to remain high on the hit list with readers. I did go a little overboard with my creative use of metaphor but why it's so popular is a mystery to me. Maybe there are a lot of Passmore researchers out there? Thanks go to Jasia, and her Carnival of Genealogy, for providing the topic for a popular post and one that has put me in contact with a distant cousin.
  4. Mt. St. Helens Eruption - Disasters. A topic that surely is high in search hits, this was part of Amy Coffin's (We Tree Blog) 2011 series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History.
  5. How Do You Organize Your Blog Reading? A topic I still am tinkering with, I'm glad it generated interest.
  6. When is it OK to Throw an Old Photo Away? Sorting Saturday. There was some excellent discussion in the comments on this post and I suspect we will continue to ponder and discuss it in the New Year (see #8 below).
  7. A Look at a Cash Entry Land File - The Summary. I'm pleased you Wonderful Readers have taken an interest in land files. It's a topic I'm finding very interesting and productive as far as making progress in my research. I haven't yet covered the ever popular Homestead Files. Look for that series in 2012. I'm putting a different spin on it.
  8. Introducing the 21st Century Organized Family Historian (#21COFH). I am shocked, pleased, humbled and a little intimidated to see that this one post in the last few days of 2011 made the top 12 for the year! There has been a debate raging in my mind for the last several months as to whether or not to do this series as I wasn't sure if there would really be much interest. Considering that this one post generated an all time high in daily hits to The Turning of Generations, I would say there is some pent up interest in the community! My hope (besides getting this family archival mess straightened up) is that we all can learn from each other by going through this process. Let's get it done!
  9. Treasure Chest Thursday - The Time Capsule - Part 2. This series is from 2010 and while I'm not sure why this one post from the series popped up as number 9 but I'm really glad. Examining and preserving the contents of a suitcase of my great grandmother, Frances Lowe, was a favorite project. I've updated the post to include links to the other articles in the series.
  10. The Green 1964 Chevy Impala. This was another 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History, the topic of which was - cars. Classic cars are always fun.
  11. COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe Another  Carnival of Genealogy topic, scrapbooking of any kind is always fun.
  12. Progress on the Archival Closet on Sorting Saturday. This is the perfect post to end your list of top choices from 2011. Progress has been made! More progress will occur in 2012. I think I see an Archival Room in my future!
Have a safe and Happy New Year!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

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