Once a week I sit down and review blogs to present you with items that may be of interest to you. While I do this weekly, the articles may be older because I just ran across them. Just because something has been around for awhile doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, so I include those as well. Here are some of what I found this week.

54th Massachusetts Memorial by Augustus Saint Gaudens.

Mel Wolfgang of Jonathan Sheppard Books is a font of knowledge when it comes to history and genealogy. This week, he remembered the famous 54^th Massachusetts from the Civil War. This famous unit, led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was on of the first regiments of black soldiers created by the Union after the Emancipation Proclamation.  In 1989, the story of these brave men was turned into a movie, Glory, starring Matthew Broderick as Shaw. On July 18^th, 1863, many of these men, including Shaw, were massacred by Confederate forces. Mel’s two-part column on Mnemosyne’s Magic Mirror this week remembers the 54^th Massachusetts, and Acting Adjutant G.W. James (brother of novelist Henry James).

Michael John Neill in RootDig.com talks this week about a new feature from Google. While most everyone knows about Google maps, that help you navigate outdoors, did you know that they are starting to create indoor maps as well? Michael discusses Google’s mapping of buildings on the college campus where he works, and shares a preview video in Google Maps-Indoors.

Randy Seaver writes a thoughtful commentary on the current controversy surrounding a CNN Money story on the Social Security Death Index.  Randy analyzes the article, and points out a number of mistakes. Unfortunately, any fact checkers that may have been employed in reviewing the article seem to have been asleep at the wheel.

Many of you may be familiar with Julie Mitchuka. Among her many talents, she and I are teaching assistants together for the Boston University Genealogical Research Program. This week she is in Washington, D.C., attending the National Institute on Genealogical Research for the first time, with another friend and B.U. teaching assistant, Robert Stanhope. For those who have wondered what it was like to attend NIGR, she is posting on her blog this week about the experience.