Collecting random bits of genealogy news.
GL’s Musings
Sarah Slavick wrote an article in the Missourian (Columbia, Missouri), Conference helps uncover past, about the Missouri State Genealogical Society’s 25th annual conference.
It just so happens that Cyndi Howells was the keynote speaker (Cyndi as in Cyndi’s List). It mentioned some of her family’s background (including her great-great-great-grandfather, a Union soldier who escaped from a Confederate Army Camp under interesting circumstances).
Another article (which is mentioned in the one about JK Rowling) from the Times Online (timesonline.co.uk), by Lois Rogers.
Excerpt from the article:
ONE of the biggest studies of inherited wealth in Britain, to be published this week, reveals that one in five of the population can trace their ancestry back to a family much grander and richer than themselves.
While half of those who used a new computer system to research their family tree back as far as 500 years found that they were upwardly mobile, at least 20% discovered that their ancestors had made (and then lost) a great fortune.
Genealogy sites have become some of the most popular on the internet, and an analysis of the family trees drawn up by more than 1,000 people who used Genes Reunited, an offshoot of the Friends Reunited website, to trace their ancestors has provided a unique study of social mobility dating back to Tudor times and beyond.
The article mentions how many can trace their roots back to rich/prestigious families (see, we really are all descended from royalty!).
They mention that there was an analysis made of the family trees of a thousand people on Genes Reunited, and how it showed how people moved up or down in the social hierarchy.
I’m not going to rant.
An article about a genealogist researching JK Rowling’s ancestry, at the Times Online (timesonline.co.uk) by Camillo Fracassini and Lois Rogers, shows that JK Rowling is in fact, a true Scot (and not just an honorary one).
The Genealogue had a good article about a site that I used to frequent (albeit anonymously), gensuck.com, which was basically a site for genealogists to vent (and did some of us vent!). It’s went downhill, which is a shame, because there was a lot of good, well-earned criticism about various genealogy products, companies, etc. on that site.
A paragraph in an article at eyefortravel.com about increased travel (in the US) caught my eye: