90th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 90th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"A Tribute to Women! March is women's history month and a great time to honor the women on our family trees.This is will be the 4th annual edition on this topic so we're going to change it up just a bit to keep it fresh... Write a biography about a woman on your family tree starting with a timeline of their life. The timeline can be a separate post that you link to from your biography (which can itself be a series of articles) but please just submit one post to the COG. If you haven't written from a timeline before you may find it a great learning/research experience! Since this topic will likely require more research and writing time you'll have a full month till the deadline. There will be no March 1st edition of the COG. The deadline for submissions will be March 15th. Thirty submissions will be accepted."

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!

89th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 89th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"The Third Annual iGene Awards, The Best of The Best! It's Academy awards time... time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, aka AGFH, to honor their best blog posts of 2009 in the following 5 categories:

• Best Picture - Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in 2009. Tell us which you liked best and why.
• Best Screen Play - Which family story that you shared in 2009 would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members?
• Best Documentary - Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in 2009?
• Best Biography - Which was the best biographical article you wrote in 2009?
• Best Comedy - Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in 2009?"

Enjoy!

Jessica's Genejournal's Best Of The Best 2008

It is February again and that means it is time for the Second Annual iGene Awards. Although this is only the second time that I have participated in this event, I still find it difficult to decide which articles are my best. So, here are my choices for the categories:

Best Picture - I posted several photographs this past year, but I think the best photograph posted was the photograph of my great-grandparents. (Please look on the right side of the page for the picture.) I posted this picture originally for the second edition of the Smile for the Camera, and you can read my post here.

Best Screen Play - This category was difficult for me to choose because I really did not go into detail enough about my family's stories, but I finally decided that the closest article I had to a screen play would be the article on my ancestor, Anton. This article was one of the very few that I happened to post that gave any personal details about my ancestors. Personally, I think the story of his life could probably be made into a movie, although the information in my post is sparse. I can't think of anyone who might portray him, though.

Best Documentary - Again, this was another difficult category for me, but I think the best article for this category was Poverty and My Ancestors: Blog Action Day 2008 Post. In this post, I explored my ancestor's experiences in living with poverty.

Best Biography - I think the article closest to being a biography was A Probable Ancestor: The Independent and Spirited Christoph Friedrich Cotta. Although I did not give too many details on his life (since I am still doing research on him), I think I was able to sum up his life in a couple of paragraphs.

Best Comedy - I think the best article for this category would be the Ten Signs You're Addicted to Genealogy. Of course, I cannot remember if I mentioned this article in last year's iGene awards, but since this was published in 2008, I'm including it even if I already used it last year.

Well, those the articles that I believe were my best? Do you agree with my choices? Which articles would you have chosen? As always, you can leave a comment with your thoughts or ideas. Thanks.