Sunday, March 04, 2012

Carnival of Genealogy, 115th Edition

Welcome to the March 4, 2012 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic for this edition is: Flash Family History! We're writing our family histories in 300 words or less (per family line). This was an exercise to challenge our way of thinking about our family history (paring it down to it's bare essentials) and a writing exercise as well. It's harder to do than you might think. However, our participants have done an outstanding job of writing a "flash" version of their family histories. Bravo to them!

I think what you'll be most impressed by as you read these wonderful articles is how much style difference you can put into 300 words. The contributing authors each had a unique approach to the topic and came up with very interesting "flash" family histories. They are all terrific! So pour yourself a shot glass ("flash" version of a drink ;-) of your favorite libation and check out these well written family histories. The Carnival is back in town!


Bill West presents GENEALOGY IN A FLASH posted at West in New England, saying,"I chose to do all four lines. It took me longer than I thought it would to write about my Yankee and Irish ancestors, but here they are!"

Julie Goucher presents Carnival Of Genealogy 115 - Flash Family History posted at Anglers Rest, saying, "Introductions to the lives of my eight material Great Grandparents."

Cynthia Shenette presents Flash Back! The Life and Times of Francois Chenet (Greatly Abridged) posted at Heritage Zen:, saying, "My great-grandfather Francois Chenet (1813-1886) led a long and busy life. He was a Civil War soldier, a husband, and the father of many. No, I really mean many..."

Anne Hodges presents Carnival of Genealogy - 115 Flash family history posted at Pasts Unfolding, saying, "Writing a history of my Crosby line in 300 words was indeed a challenge. I wasn't sure it could be done, but I found a way."

Leah presents Bergers in a Flash posted at The Internet Genealogist, saying, "A history of my Berger ancestors in America - in under 300 words!"

Janet Iles presents Flash Family History -- Iles and Dudley posted at Janet the researcher, saying, "Janet took up the challenge of writing a flash history of her paternal grandparents."

Joan Hill presents 115th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Flash Family History: Wanderers, Jabez and Elizabeth McPherson posted at Roots'n'Leaves, saying, "I got a very late start on this wonderful challenge -- so only one Flash History, which highlights my wandering McPherson family and leaves me with questions yet unanswered."

Nancy Fermazin presents Love Letters, Lies, Truth, Half Truths ~ Who Knows?  posted at ADOLPHUS AMES GENEALOGY and Wanderlust posted at Nancy Fermazin Family.

Jasia presents Flash Family History: Mizera and Lisowski and Flash Family History: Lipa and Laska posted at Creative Gene. After I wrote (and re-wrote and edited and re-wrote ;-) I realized that the same basic framework would work for all 4 of my family lines. The toughest part was deciding which details were significant and needed to be included and which could be left out. Once I worked through that, the rest was pretty easy.

Carol Stevens presents 115th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy :: Lashbrook Flash Family History posted at Reflections From the Fence, saying, "The verbose one, that would be moi, did it!  I really did it!  A family history in 300 words, EXACTLY!  I know, you don't believe it either, you all know me, chatter, chatter, chatter.  Come see, I DID IT!

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I hope you were impressed and inspired to write a "flash" version of your own family history. They can be used as an introduction to a more comprehensive publication, as Carol suggested, or you could use it as an "About My Family" page for your genealogy blog as I am now doing. I'm sure there are other opportunities to use it as well... perhaps as a page to link to from a QR code on your business card. I'll probably do that too. It would be a quick and easy way to share your family history with people you meet at conferences, seminars, or just out researching. The 300 word limit makes it short and sweet for all to read!


I want to take a moment to comment on recent problems with the blogcarnival.com website. For a few months now people have had problems when submitting articles. The main problem has been with the automated email system. For some  reason, it is no longer sending out confirmation emails to those submitting articles or to me as the host. However, the system does seem to be collecting all of the submissions and when I go to the website to check on submitted articles they all appear to be there. Very recently, there were additional problems with the "captcha" system. However, just like the problems with the email system it appears that all the articles submitted were in fact collected as they should be, it just doesn't seem like they are because the "captcha" doesn't appear to work. If anyone has submitted an article that doesn't appear in the COG, please let me know.

I have contacted the folks at the blogcarnival.com website but have not heard back from them. This too is very odd because when I've contacted them in the past they have always been responsive. I don't know what is going on over there. I have considered hosting the COG separate from the blogcarnival.com website but I worry about copyright issues if I continue using the "carnival" name but not their website. So for the time being, I'm sticking with the blogcarnival website for collecting submissions. However, please feel free to send me an email with the link to your article and your introduction if you are concerned that I may not have received it (imjasia at yahoo dot com).


Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: Picture/Story for Women's History Month. March is Women's History Month and we will once again honor a woman from our family tree by featuring her in the COG. This time we will do so by starting with a photograph and telling either the story of the photo and/or a biography of the woman pictured. So dig through those vintage photographs in your collection and pick out one of the fair ladies (or a colorful one! ;-) on your tree to write about. The deadline for submissions is April 1st.

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.



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