Family Tree Magazine looking for blog favorites

Wouldn't you know it, that Family Tree Magazine is taking nominations for the 40 best genealogy blogs, and here I am on vacation, without adequate time to craft intelligent and witty posts, to impress the heck out of the genealogical community so that I might make the cut. But I promise that whether or not y'all nominate me, I'll be back online in a couple weeks with erudite and informative ramblings - I mean blog postings - that will open up new avenues in your genealogical research and suddenly you'll have your line back to Adam. Oh wait. Maybe I've gone a bit overboard there. Let's just say I'll be back in a couple of weeks, and writing with a fervor stirred by last week's FGS conference. And here's the link to nominate your favorites - no matter who they are... http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/40bestnominations.

Will you be heard?

What if you went to your local research library and it was closed. Empty. Gone.

What if the records they had in there were scattered to other repositories. A piece here, a piece there.

What if that really is happening right now.

And what if YOUR voice could make a difference. Would you take a minute and speak up? Would you take thirty seconds to click on a link and add your name to the list of those who don't want this to happen?

"The governor of Michigan has used the executive order to close the Library of Michigan and divide the contents to other libraries. The Records Preservation Committee, a joint organization of the National Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies has started an online petition in an effort to stop this action. Please go to the following site: http://www.fgs.org/rpac/index.php to read and join the efforts to stop the loss of their organized history.

"The US did this over 100 years ago with the non-population censuses. Now those important documents are hard to find as they are scattered across the country in state, university and organization libraries." (quoted text from a friend)

Be heard.

And please feel free to repost and pass the information in this particular blog posting around to anyone you know that might care about records access.

One reason for the latest Record Search Pilot makover

Y'all might have noticed that just a couple days ago the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot took on a new look - new fonts, new color scheme, new layout - that sort of thing. Scared me, at first, to tell the truth, fearing that I was going to have to figure out how to get all those great indexed records and images all over again! But a quick peruse calmed my fears, that it's still the same Record Search Pilot site, with a minor cosmetic makeover.

Today, at the FGS conference in Little Rock, I chatted with the folks over at the FamilySearch booth, who were very friendly and informative, and surprisingly the first woman I talked to there told me that she knew my sister (without even knowing my name! we kinda resemble each other in looks and voice so go figure). Turns out her daughter used to date my nephew for a while several years ago. Small world, isn't it?... but I digress...

I was talking with Merrill White (hope I got that right), another one of the FamilySearch representatives there at the booth, and in regards to those cosmetic changes, he directed me to the FamilySearch labs site, which has the upcoming new look for the entire FamilySearch website posted (http://labs.familysearch.org/alpha/) and explained that the new look for the Record Search site is just to prepare it to fit in with the overall new look that's coming for the entire FamilySearch site!

I'm learning so many great things, and meeting the most incredible people here! I'll post a few more bits and blurbs as I get my notes and thoughts organized.