Here at where2look, we’ve been doing a lot of organizing lately. Reduce the paper! is a daily battle cry and we take this quest quite seriously. Before we downsized (more on that later), I sorted through a decade of Family Tree Magazine issues. I saved all the good articles (there were LOTS of them!) and started scanning. But first I reread them…

Of interest to me as a blogger were the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. On a recent rainy afternoon, I visited all the blogs listed in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 issues. Many wonderful writers made FTM’s top 40 (I wish I could follow them all!) and I’ve added a number of those to my faves (scroll down the right hand column of this page to see my list).

I used the following criteria to keep my reading list manageable:

• Impart wisdom: If the blog informs me, educates me, or keeps me apprised of current issues or events, I want to follow.
• Geography: If the blog is written about a place in which I’m doing research or a place I’d like to visit, I want to follow.
• Subject matter: If the blog is written about topics in which I’m interested, I want to follow.
• Author: If the blog’s writer has a literary gift, I want to follow.
• Quantity, quality, and frequency: If the blog is kept current by a writer sharing useful information fairly regularly, I want to follow.
• Ease of use: If the blog is easy to follow, by email for example, I will follow.

Are any of my favorite blogs on your list of favorites too? Which ones and why?