Monthly Archives: January 2018

Intermissions

January 3, 2018American History, Family Stories, TechnologyBrick Walls, Critical Analysis, Family stories, Object Lessons, PhotographsJeff Record

This past Christmas weekend I was re-introduced to a medium of family history that may have gone out of style. No, I’m not talking about my own use of outdated published materials (yikes!) or any of my attempted genealogical gleanings (snore…) or even my possible faux pas in giving dad a DNA test for Christmas.

Rather, I am referring to a medium of family history generally associated with oral histories and a medium where we (almost…) never actually hear anyone speak! Continue reading Intermissions →

Perfect 10

January 2, 2018Genealogical Writing, Research MethodsCritical Analysis, Research tips, Spotlight, The Well-Stocked Genealogical LibraryAlicia Crane Williams

With the Winter Olympics almost upon us, we will be hearing a lot about “perfect” scores in the sports where judges assign points for such things as technical difficulty and artistic interpretation.

A “scoring” system for genealogies would be interesting. If, for example, we had ten categories on which to judge a genealogical source, and each category had a potential ten points maximum, the “perfect” score would be 100. Of course, this would all be subjective, but it would give us a way to group works for comparison (top 10%, bottom 50% etc.). Here are ten categories that I came up with, in no particular order (once we have the categories, we will examine them in detail in future posts): Continue reading Perfect 10 →

2017: the year in review concluded

January 1, 2018American History, Collections, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, ICYMI, Mayflower 2020A Genealogist's Diary, African American Research, Critical Analysis, Family stories, International genealogical research, SpotlightScott C. Steward

On Friday, I wrote about some of the most widely-read Vita Brevis posts of 2017. To mark the beginning of the next year, here are six more popular posts showcasing the range of subjects covered in a blog that publishes about 250 posts a year. (In fact, Vita Brevis marks its fourth birthday on January 10, and the blog’s one-thousandth post was published in November.)

In July, Michelle Doherty laid out a genealogical case using “Circumstantial evidence”: Continue reading 2017: the year in review concluded →