February 2010 Issue of the Shades Of The Departed Magazine Posted!

The February 2010 issue of the Shades of the Departed Magazine has been posted! You can read it here. Enjoy!

A New Carnival!

Although I'm late in posting this, I still wanted to mention that a new carnival, the Carnival of Genealogy Societies, has been created! You can read more about the carnival here. The topic for the first edition will be on

"Doin' Things Right! Shine a spotlight on a specific program, project, or publication at a genealogical society and tell us why it worked. Tell an anecdote about how you benefited from a particular genealogical society service. Share a success story and be specific! The deadline for submissions is March 7, 2010."

Enjoy!

2009 iGene Awards: The Best of the Best of Jessica's Genejournal

For this upcoming edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, I have to come up with what I think were the five best posts from this blog that fit the categories of Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Documentary, Best Comedy, and Best Biography. So, here are my five picks for the articles that I believe are the closest and best fits of the categories:

For Best Picture, I have chosen Wedding Belles: A Beautiful Wedding Picture. I chose this article not only because I love the picture but also because the Google Analytics site indicated that this photograph had the largest number of views in 2009 than any other photograph posted. Obviously, this photograph was the favorite of this blog's viewers.

For Best Screenplay, I have chosen Justice and Independence: Ancestral Experiences ... . My choice for this category is a little bit of a stretch as I did not really write an article that could be turned in to a screenplay; however, I believe this article is the closest fit for this category out of all the articles I wrote in 2009 because it highlights the experiences of one of my ancestral branches with events that occurred in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The article is really a collection of very brief stories of my ancestors' experiences, and any one of the stories could be turned into a screenplay in itself since they are filled with high drama. Well, my brief descriptions do not contain any drama themselves, the described events are dramatic in themselves.

For Best Documentary, I have chosen Trippstadt, Germany Civil Death Records, Part One: 1806-1829. I believe this article is the best fit for this category out of all the articles I wrote for 2009 as it was the only informational article that I wrote. The article is part of a series of articles that will focus upon the nineteenth century death records of Trippstadt, Germany. Although I have not written any other articles in this series since this article, I do plan to do so in the future when I have more time.

For Best Biography, I have chosen Music in the Family .... I struggled to come up with an article for this category as I did not write a biographical article in 2009, and therefore, my choice is a bit of a stretch. I actually debated over whether or not to put this article in the screenplay category, but I chose not to as the article did not deal with an event or story. This article is really a brief sketch of an aspect of a talent that some of my family members and ancestors have or had, and since the article looks at my family over a span of time, I figured this article was the closest fit to anything biographical that I had written.

For Best Comedy, I have chosen And Now For Another Episode of the "Adventures of Ben and Casey" .... Again, my choice for this category is a stretch because I did not write any articles in 2009 that would be consider funny. The only humorous aspects of this article are the title and picture of my dogs. Since pets can do funny things and it was struggle for me to photograph my two dogs sitting together, I decided that this was the closest fit for the comedy category.

Well, those are my five choices? What did you think of my choices? Do you agree with my selections, or do you believe other articles are better fits for the categories. As always, you can leave a comment with your thoughts. Enjoy!