There’s a lot of good family history information available on the Internet. Here are five places we’ve enjoyed visiting this week:
How to decide how much to reveal about yourself. Penelope Trunk is a no-holds-barred career advisor whose brutally candid observations on her own life make her blog a refreshing oasis in the banality-laden blogosphere. A common question people often have about their own histories is how much should they tell. Trunk’s answer is emphatically simple. Hint: she doesn’t believe in secrets.
Homeless Man Leaves Behind Surprise. Have you ever thought about paring back your lifestyle to its bare bones, just getting by? That’s pretty much what Richard Leroy Walters did. When the homeless Walters died two years ago, National Public Radio was among those Walters entrusted with his legacy.
Our Scars Tell the Stories of Our Lives. As we go through life, our bodies get nicked up a bit through our encounters with tossed sticks, broken glass, jagged metal and other assorted instruments of destruction. We bounce back, but our bodies retain visual reminders of our past mishaps. New York Times reporter Dana Jennings believes in the storytelling power of scars.
Fire! Miriam Robbins Midkiff’s entry in the recent Carnival of Genealogy about disasters is a reminder of how valuable it is when someone records the details of something important in their life. In this case, Miriam was blessed with two eyewitness accounts from totally different perspectives.
Search for family history leads to Confederate cemetery in Resaca, Ga. Glenda Byars' account of how her and her husband tracking down separate family histories led them to the same small Georgia cemetery is a darn good read.
Bonus: This is why you’re fat. Fascinating in a train wreck sort of way, you may find this site mouth-watering … or disgusting. To get the full effect, spin through the archives. Bon appétit!
Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.
Flickr photo courtesy of arquera.
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