Alan Jackson, Books and a lil' bit of Genealogy (Research Diary, no. 9)

My Research Diary:
Part to-do list...
Part dear diary...
Part Nosy-Nellie...

Weekly events, plans (and a question or two) from my oh-so exciting genealogy (and sometimes non-genealogy) life...

"The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television."
- Andrew Ross

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

What happened these past couple of weeks:

On a Personal Note... Mom and I went to see Alan Jackson in concert (for those of you that don't listen to him, he's a country artist). While he's not my favourite musician (though mom loves him, which is the main reason I got the tickets), I still can't believe that he came to Oshawa of all places! Artists of his caliber usually play in venues in Toronto or Hamilton or Casino Rama - not little ol' Oshawa! ;)

Blog housekeeping...

• Thanks, as always, for reading! I appreciate your comments and I think I've followed everyone in turn, but if I haven't, please let me know!
• I added a Resources page, on which I've listed (mainly) cemetery transcriptions and books I own... (It was also an experience in creating a Google Docs form - I work frequently in Google Docs documents, but I've done a form before. It was quite neat (and easy)!)
• In addition to "Resources" tab, I merged the "Surnames" and "Locations" pages into a new "Research Interests" tab, deleted the "Brick Walls" page, and modified my "Research Plans" page (to which I added a category for future "Research Plans/Brick Walls" posts)!
• I also played around with the new font styles! Let me know what you think! :)
• I've added 33 new-to-me blogs to my reading lists - see below (though I'm sure there will be more, as always!)

Genealogy:

• I celebrated my first blogiversary with "Sort of 1..."!  Thanks to everyone for the congratulations!
• A post intended for Military Monday turned into a Mystery Monday...with "The Curious Case of Crago"
• I continued with the FamilySearch indexing, moving on from the 1861 Ontario census, to Manchester (U.K.) parish registers from 1908/1910 and 1930-1932, and to New Brunswick death registrations (FS had labelled them English, but in reality, they were mixed French and English records).
• I created two spreadsheets in Google Docs: one for book Inter-Library Loan Orders (ILLOs) and the second for microfilm reel orders...
• ...and I am currently awaiting a microfilm which contains the "Archibald McNab Papers" and just may list Alexander Cameron's arrival date in Canada!
• Regular features included Tombstone Tuesday (continuing Oshawa Union with Askew/Harlow, Askew/Westlake, Broadbent/Joughin, and Ferguson/Stevenson), Wordless Wednesday (Charlie and an historic train station), and Tabloid Thursday (London Blitz rescuers/ees and Diptheria & Typhoid)

Books:

• Two ILLOs later and it's finally finished!  ;)  I finished reading G. J. Meyer's A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 - 1918. While it wasn't a difficult read, it was an enjoyable one and I wanted to give it my full attention (and at just over 600 pages in hardback, it was also quite hefty!). Though I had some minor quibbles with it, on the whole it was an excellent, very readable, and comprehensive history of the war (mainly from a military perspective, but also including social and political overviews). I definitely recommend it!
• I also finished (and was quite happy with the first three):
  
  • Sharon DeBartolo Carmack's Organizing Your Family History Search: Efficient & Effective Ways to Gather & Protect Your Genealogical Research - she not only covered personal genealogy resarch, but also touched on research projects and professional genealogy.
  • Charlotte Zeepvat's Prince Leopold: The Untold Story of Queen Victoria's Youngest Son
  • Ken McGoogan's How the Scots Invented Canada - short, 1 to 2 page biographies of various Scots and Scottish descendants who impacted Canadian life, culture, history, science, etc.
  • Harry Adler's Tracking Down Your Ancestors: Discover the Story Behind Your Ancestors and Bring Your Ancestors to Life (eBook) - I borrowed this mainly to play with our library's new eReaders, so I don't know if my dislike stemmed from the eReader itself (I can see the possibilites, but only for occasional use), or from the book (I ended up skimming most of it). I've found a few other eBook titles that I want to read, so we'll see about the eReader...

New-to-me blogs:

• Canadian genealogy blogs (3)
• Lundy Family History
• My Journey Back
• OntarioGenealogist
• History blogs (2)
  • The Empire Called and I Answered
  • May Hill's WWII Diaries
• Cemetery blogs (3)
  • Glasgow Ancestry
  • Grave Encounters
  • Stone Gardens
• British Isles Genealogy Blogs (8)
  • Anglers Rest
  • Blundering Blindly Backwards
  • Digging Up the Ancients
  • The Family Recorder
  • Growing Family Trees and Vegetables
  • The Professional Descendant
  • Scottish Genealogy Blog
  • You Don't Choose Your Family
• General genealogy blogs (17)
  • Are My Roots Showing?
  • Census Junkie
  • Discovering Latvian Roots
  • GenBlog
  • A Genealogist's Sketchbook
  • Genealogy, I Am Doing It!
  • The Journey Takers Blog
  • Kinexxions
  • LibLady's Genealogy Blog
  • My Big Fat Cajun/Irish/Scottish/English/German/French/Southern Family Blog
  • Orations of OMcHodoy
  • Shaking Family Trees
  • The Shy Genealogist
  • Voices: Past and Present
  • Winging It
  • Wishful Linking Family History Blog
  • Witch Genealogist With a Black Cat

What's coming up:

• Regular features, including Military Monday, Tombstone Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday (I just found some old photographs!), and Tabloid Thursday...as well as my continuation of the 2010 "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy" series (which I've ignored for a very long time!)
• All the recent talk about Research Toolbox's has me thinking - the "Links" page will be replaced (sometime!) with a new "Toolbox" tab...though I haven't worked out all the details yet!
• Edition #103 (Women's History) of the Carnival of Genealogy has been announced and I'm mulling over an entry...

My Question (among questions!):

Do you have a favourite cemetery website?

I have always like the Northeastern Gravemarker Gallery.  And then I've found it's expanded to all of Canada at the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery!  While there is a lot of gaps, it is turning into the premier site for Canadian cemeteries.  There's just so much to find - and all pictures! ;)

Thanks for reading!
Jenn