Thursday, February 18, 2010

Carnival of Genealogy, 90th Edition

Welcome to the February 18, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic for this edition is: The 2009 iGene Awards! This is an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to showcase "the best of the best" posts that appeared on their blogs in 2009. I'm sure you'll be impressed with the creativity and thoughtfulness they put into their award announcements!

So now, let's dim the lights and prepare for an awards show like no other. Pop open the corks on the champagne and pour yourself a glass of the bubbly. Cue the music from the orchestra. Bring up the spotlights. The 2009 iGene Awards Ceremony, brought to you by the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, will honor their best blog posts of 2009 in the following 5 categories:
  • Best Picture
  • Best Screen Play
  • Best Documentary
  • Best Biography
  • Best Comedy
Let the awards begin!

Bill West presents THE THIRD ANNUAL WEST IN NEW ENGLAND GENIE AWARDS posted at West in New England, saying, "The flutaphone orchestra has just concluded "Fanfare for the Common Man"and an expectant hush falls over the crowd here in beautiful downtown Abington. It's the 2009 West in New England Genies!!" Bill has a real appreciation for music. We've seen evidence of that from time to time on his blog. In this instance he closes his iGene Awards post with a clever little ditty... "The Geneablogger Blues". Check it out, it will make you smile :-)


Tonia Kendrick presents And the iGene Award Goes To posted at Tonia's Roots, saying, "The votes are in and it's time to roll out the red carpet. Welcome to the 2009 iGene Awards, spotlighting Tonia’s Roots. . ." I always like to see people put their own spin on COG topics. Tonia does this by including not only her choices for the 5 categories of awards but the nominees under consideration as well. What a clever way of including even more links to her best posts!

Wendy Hawksley presents Third Annual iGene Awards: Massachusetts style! posted at New England Genealogy, saying, "Resubmission of blog post for the next blog carnival."

Apple presents 3rd Annual iGene Awards posted at Apple's Tree, saying, "The red carpet is out, the nominees are lined up and the votes have been tallied. And the winners are........" Apple included nominees in her categories which is a great way for us to reread more great Apple treats ;-) She also came up with a category of her own, "Best Informercial". Too funny! But what I enjoyed most on her awards post was the cast of her Best Screen Play, her grandchildren! Love it! Check it out!

Sheri Fenley presents 90th COG - The 3rd Annual iGene Awards posted at The Educated Genealogist, saying, "Her award winning articles include posts about cajones, thoroughbred chickens and nuns. Hah, you can't help but want to read them now!"

Randy Seaver presents The 2009 iGene Awards for Genea-Musings posted at Genea-Musings. Randy had probably the toughest job of anyone in terms of choosing which posts to give awards to. Having authored nearly 1000 posts in 2009, he had quite a job on his hands just reviewing the possibilities. I think you'll agree he did a fine job of selecting award winning posts from his vast library. Do stop by and see for yourself!

Becky Wiseman presents kinexxions: The 2009 iGene Awards for Kinexxions posted at kinexxions, saying, "Coming to you live! From Somewhere."

J.M. presents The Third Annual iGene Awards, The Best of The Best! posted at Tracing My Roots, saying, "Live from the Netherlands, I am proud to present the Third Annual iGene Awards, presented to you by your host JM. The pickings were meager this year here over at Tracing My Roots, but we managed to pick a winner out of the 13 submission for each of the five categories. So, without much further ado, I present to you The Best of The Best."

Greta Koehl presents Live from Falls Church, Virginia, It’s the Third Annual iGene Awards! posted at Greta's Genealogy Bog, saying, "2009 was a challenging year, but I think it has been a good one for the Genea-Blogging community. I learned a lot from my fellow Genea-Bloggers and enjoyed writing the blog this year. Just imagine what a red-carpet event for the Genea-Bloggers would look like!" Greta shares with us not only the best of the blog posts she wrote this year but in her "acceptance speech" she shares with us what and how she has learned to be a better writer and blog author from reading others' posts and receiving comments on her posts. What valuable lessons she has learned! And the best part is, most of us are learning in this very same way and aren't even aware of it. Kudos Greta!

Jessica Oswalt presents 2009 iGene Awards: The Best of the Best of Jessica's Genejournal posted at Jessica's Genejournal, saying, "My choices for the five iGene categories, and why I chose those five articles."

John Newmark presents Third Annual iGene Awards - TransylvanianDutch Chapter posted at Transylvanian Dutch, saying, "After careful deliberations the members of the TransylvanianDutch chapter of the Academy of Genealogy and Family History made their decisions regarding the Third Annual iGene Awards. Their choices were recorded and sealed inside an envelope. Metaphorically speaking. And the winners are..." John was creative with a new category as well. Stop by and see who he selected as "Best Genea-Blogger in a Supporting Role". Very thoughtful and cleverly done, John! I wish I'd thought of it myself. 

Pam Taylor presents Third Annual iGene Awards, Best of the Best posted at Genealogy, saying, "The iGene Awards for 2009 go to......"

Linda Hughes Hiser presents 90th Carnival of Genealogy--Third Annual iGene Awards posted at Flipside, saying, "Best photo award goes to my flapper, grand aunt, showing a little skin on her tiger skin rug." Linda not only wrote a great intro for her awards but she did some fine casting of actors and actresses for the leading roles in her Best Screen Play category too. The intro hooks you in, makes you smile, and sets the tone for a fun read. I think you'll agree she made great selections too!

Janet Iles presents 2009 iGene Awards Nominations (Carnival of Genealogy #90) posted at Janet the researcher, saying, "How can I choose? The articles were calling to me "Pick me, pick me". Here are some of my favorites."

Geniaus presents The Third Annual iGene Awards, The Best of The Best! posted at Geniaus, saying, "Although Australia does not often snag academy awards or the like Geniaus believes that one has to be in it to win it and is therefore submitting for consideration her best posts of 2009"

Smallest Leaf presents The best of 2009: 100 Years in America iGene Awards posted at 100 Years in America, saying, "The mystery passenger list with my great-grandfather’s name crossed out… The trials of my great-grandmother and other women immigrants a century ago… The records of another great-grandfather whose origins in Hungary are clear but who disappears after a number of years in America… The photograph of a cousins wedding back in the “old country”… These are the articles I’ve chosen as the “best of 2009” here at 100 Years in America. I hope you’ll enjoy taking these journeys along with me back to the time of my great-grandparents’ generation." Lisa staged a whole production for her award presentations and did a wonderful job of it. She included her lovely photos and a sweet dedication to the newest leaf on her family tree. And Lisa also created a category of her own. She calls it "Special Mention" and that was a good choice because it is an article worth mentioning!

Carol presents 90th Carnival of Genealogy--Third Annual iGene Awards posted at Reflections From the Fence, saying, "The award winners from Reflections are - - - - - After a day long review, I discover that my awards (and some honorary mentions) all go to stories and photos that always pull at my heart strings and that many of these stories were written because of challenges such as the COG." Carol too included "Honorary Mentions". This is such a great way to highlight other outstanding posts you've written. And, it makes the choosing a bit easier when you don't have to settle on just one... All are worthy of awards Carol!

Sherry Stocking Kline presents The Third Annual iGene Awards ? The Best of my Best posted at Family Tree Writer, saying, "Jasia you do a great job in pulling all these together, and it has been fun to join the blogging community and 'go to the Carnival!' Thank you! Sherry"

Miriam Robbins Midkiff presents AnceStories Presents the 2009 iGene Awards! posted at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors, saying, "My Best of the Best for 2009!"

Donna presents I'd Like to Thank the Academy...2009 iGENE Awards posted at What's Past is Prologue, saying, "Join me on the red carpet for the 2009 iGENE awards!" Donna did a terrific job with her awards post. She has a very rich collection of 2009 articles to choose from making her choices difficult I'm sure. She included "Runner Ups" along with the winner in each category, a great way to include more than one post. I especially like how she used comments she received along with her award choices. They supported her choices and highlighted some of her commenters. Great idea! 

Jasia presents May I Have Your Attention Please... It's iGene Awards Time! posted at Creative Gene. My awards post is a good lesson in how not to write a quality article. It's a sad example of what happens when my attention gets divided between two things of equal importance. I wrote it while watching the Olympic games on TV and as a result forgot to cast the actors/actresses for my Best Screen Play. But I've gone back and done that now so if you'd like to know who I'd cast to play myself as a precocious 15 year old, check it out!

M. Diane Rogers presents Third Annual iGene Awards - Academy of Genealogy and Family History posted at CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt'. The iGene Award presentations are a fun review of the previous year. It's interesting for me to see how often there is a clear winner in each category.


~*~*~*Feature Article *~*~*~

footnoteMaven presents And The iGene Goes To posted at footnoteMaven, saying, "I love the iGene Awards. It is my favorite COG of the year. fM gets to pick out a lovely gown, jewels, and walk the red carpet. Thank you, Jasia for encouraging my fantasies." No one does an event quite like footnoteMaven! The iGene Awards are always more than just an announcement, they are a star-studded glam show extravaganza where the Maven shines her brightest. Maven takes us along on her entrance down the red carpet and introduces us to her escort for the evening and her favorite reporter. As the lights dim and the announcements begin we are treated to a veritable feast of creative, well written, compelling articles... her best, truly... in a lovely graphic presentation that compliments her chic style. She too created a category of her own, "Best Art Direction", which is most appropriate to include given the Maven's wonderful artistic talents. Bellissima!

Please join me in a standing ovation for footnoteMaven! Let's congratulate her on her putting together an elegant and exciting iGene Awards ceremony that takes the cake! She is the featured author of the 90th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!


That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. What a showcase of writing and artistic talent it was! I hope you enjoyed this event as much as I did. This edition of the COG is the one where our participants shine their brightest. It is truly "the best of the best"!

And now it's time for a Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: 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.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Thanks for the posters, fM!


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