Follow Friday on Saturday- The "I'm Always Catching Up" Edition

So Google Reader has been telling me for some time that I had 1000+ posts to read and I finally found time to catch up.  While there were many more posts I would have liked to share with you all, these were the ones that I just had to include.  I'm also posting this on Saturday, because I just couldn't pass up a post on Black Friday, so my followings were postponed until today.  Now to make sure that I keep up on my Reader on a daily  basis....

I'm actually starting out with a post that was not from another blog, but I felt it was significant to genealogists anyway.  As I was reading CNN this week an article on "Brown Babies" in Germany caught my eye.  Perhaps a part of history that we are unfamiliar with, but as genealogists could come across if our research for ourselves or others includes African American ancestors.  Ignoring the political incorrectness of the "Brown Babies" label, the article illustrates that a large number of children (in the thousands) that were given up.  These children were fathered between white women and African American Soldiers following WWII.  The women being encouraged to give up their children and the military moving the Soldier when a relationship was discovered.  Shameful.  Please check out the post, "'Brown Babies' Long Search For Family Identity".

I actually came across this as I was reading the news.  Save A Grave posted the same video.  Very sad that so many people's remains were washed away in Tropical Storm Irene, that only about 1/2 of them have been recovered, and then to top it all off some of the tombstones that had been recovered were stolen/vandalized.  Seriously?

Lorine McGinnis Schulze over at Olive Tree Genealogy has a challenge for us all!  Read about her request that you  give 15 minutes to photograph tombstone at local cemeteries in the "November's Genealogy Challenge" and then get out and photograph those stone and get back with Lorine!  I'll be heading out this weekend!

Greta's Genealogy Bog tells how she is having fun creating a webpage for her family's genealogy in her post, "Fun Stuff You Can Do With Weebly."  I love Weebly.  Thomas MacEntee first introduced me to Weebly in one of his many awesome webinars and I use it almost daily for my PTA's website.  It's so easy, you just drag and drop.  Did I mention FREE too?  Who doesn't love free stuff.  There is a "pro" version with more bells and whistles that you pay for, but I haven't needed it yet.  Greta has reminded me with this great post that I need to do the same and get to creating a page for my family's genealogy.  Check out Greta's experience with Weebly.  Everyone I know that uses it absolutely loves it!

At Faces of My Family, Lisa Swanson Ellam reminds us that sometimes it takes awhile to get the answers we need.  It took 11 months in her case, and a slight surname spelling variation!  Don't you love successes!?!

Jennifer Shoer at the Scrappy Genealogist is, well...scrapping!  Join Jennifer for Scrapbook Sundays.  They've been going on for about a month, but it's never to late to start!  Something I've often wanted to do, but never seemed to find the time.  I'm starting to grab pictures and information and I hope to be joining Jennifer and her fellow participants!  What better way to remember our ancestors and to pass something beautiful on about them!

A great post by Deb Ruth at Adventures in Genealogy where she details some great finds and connections she made through Find-A-Grave.  I'm always a big fan of Find-A-Grave and have had much success there as well.  Don't miss out.  Read her post, "Connecting on Find-A-Grave".

Lots of great stuff out there and I'm going to do everything I can to not get so far behind again!

Follow Friday - The News Edition (More or Less)

CNN posted about a trend that people will most likely see when researching their trees in the future in an article titled, "More Latinos Identify as Native American, Census Shows."  An interesting article, but I didn't consider it unexpected.  I was actually surprised it wasn't happening much sooner.

Genealogists/Family Historians tend to travel...a lot.  What apps do you use when you travel to make your trip run smoothly?  Brett Snyder has a blog "The Cranky Flier" which may interest many, but he also writes for CNN occasionally and his post on their news site, "Travel Apps That Really Help" was very good.

Jenn Woods at "Climbing My Family Tree One Branch at a Time" always has such great posts.  She recently posted about a murder that her ancestor gave testimony about.  Always interesting to read and very exciting!

Researching German ancestors?  Then you'll eventually need to dealing with German script and handwriting.  Nancy over at "My Ancestors and Me, and other relatives, too..." has a post for you!  A German genealogical must!

And wrapping it up are two videos.  The first a friend shared with me.  It was posted on Yahoo! News (it was from KCCI News in Iowa) and it was about a couple that were married for 72 years and they died holding hands.  Not to be morbid or anything...I just found it sweet.

The second just happened to start playing immediately after the previous story and was also from KCCI.  It was a story about Oak Grove Cemetery and the damage time has caused by eroding away a hillside and the graves ending up in a ravine.  Tim Schultz (an area landscaper) is looking to help rectify that situation by building a retaining wall, but the red tape is hard to get through.