Online Historical Directories Site One of Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Websites for 2016!

I'm thrilled and honored to announce that Family Tree Magazine has selected my Online Historical Directories site as one of its 101 Best Websites for 2016! The Online Historical Directories site was listed with four other sites in the "Best Cemetery and Directory Sites for Genealogy in 2016" category.

To view all 101 Best Websites for 2016, which will be featured in the September 2016 issue of Family Tree Magazine, visit http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/101-best-websites-2016.

AnceStories Named One of Internet Genealogy's 25 Top Genealogy Blogs

I received news today that AnceStories has been named one of Internet Genealogy magazine's 25 Top Genealogy Blogs. This is quite the honor, especially considering how infrequently I have been blogging in recent years, as well as knowing how many fabulous new geneablogs are now publishing.

The other recipients include:

• The Ancestry Insider, by the "Ancestry Insider"
• Anglo-Celtic Connections, by John D. Reid
• Black Nashville Genealogy & History, by Taneya Koonce
• DearMYRTLE, by Pat Richley-Erickson
• Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, by Dick Eastman
• The FamilySearch Blog, by various bloggers
• footnoteMaven, by the "footnote Maven"
• Genea-Musings, by Randy Seaver
• GeneaBloggers, by Thomas MacEntee
• Genealogy Canada, by Elizabeth Lapointe
• Genealogy's Star, by James Tanner
• GeneaNet Genealogy Blog, by Jean-Yves Baxter
• The Genetic Genealogist, by Blaine Bettinger
• Granite in My Blood, by Midge Frazel
• The JewishGen Blog: A Blog about Jewish Genealogy, by various bloggers
• Little Bytes of Life, by Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal
• London Roots Research, by Rosemary Morgan
• MyHeritage Blog, by various bloggers
• The National Archives Blog, by various bloggers 
• Olive Tree Genealogy, by Lorine McGinnis Schulze
• RootsMagic Blog, by various bloggers
• Shades of the Departed, by various bloggers
• West in New England, by Bill West
• What's Past is Prologue: Adventures in Genealogy, by Donna Pointkouski

Congratulations to all the recipients, and many thanks to Tom Bandy of Internet Genealogy magazine!

AnceStories Nominated as One of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011

I'm honored and humbled that AnceStories has been nominated as one of Family Tree Magaine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011. This was a reader-submitted nomination, and I thank my readers who nominated my blog, especially as I didn't publicize the nomination process at all this year.

Family Tree Magazine offers the following information for the voting process:

In the July 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine, we’ll name the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs, or Family Tree 40. It's time to vote on the blogs nominated by the genealogy community.

The nominees are divided into eight categories. In each category, please choose five blogs (you'll get an error if you choose too many).

For category descriptions and Family Tree 40 qualifications, please see http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider/2010/11/15/NominateAGenealogyBlogForThe2011FamilyTree40.aspx. Voting is open until 11:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 20 [Note: No time zone is given.]. You may vote multiple times.

You can click through to visit the blogs from the post at http://www.geneabloggers.com/family-tree-magazines-40-genealogy-blogs-vote-favorite/.

You can also choose to click on the image above and it will be placed in the margin of this blog. Thank you for your support!

AnceStories Listed as One of OnlineUniversities.com's 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks

AnceStories was recently listed as one of OnlineUniversities.com's 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks. Along with 13 others, this blog was recognized under the category of Specific Research Projects: "From African American genealogy to Cape Cod family ancestry, learn about specialized research here." I was curious as to how genealogy fit in with the online university world, and when I received the notice from the website, I checked it out. Here's what they had to say:

Americans are proud of their melting-pot culture, but genealogy is also a popular past-time and even profession, as family ancestry is complex and often hard to define. It takes a lot of research to untangle the web of genealogy in order to create a clear family tree, but as an online university student, you’re probably used to taking on similarly large projects. Either as a break from studying, a supplement to your history classes, or even for inspiration to start your own family ancestry research, check out these 50 blogs on genealogy.

Thank you to Kaitlyn Cole and OnlineUniversities.com for including AnceStories on their list, and congratulations to the other winners.

AnceStories Chosen as One of MyHeritage.com's Top 100 Genealogy Sites

AnceStories has been honored to be listed among MyHeritage.com's Top 100 Genealogy Sites! The criteria for this award were as follows:

1) high quality content;
2) originality in topic choice, approach and design; and
3) frequently updated content. 

In today's announcement, they said:

We also put some emphasis on finding hidden gems in the community, and bringing sites to attention which currently have relatively small audiences. As such, there are a number of lesser-known sites included, and a few more prominent sites unmentioned for the same reason.

Thank you so much for this award, and congratulations to all the other winners!

Acknowledgments

I need to do a few shout outs to some awesome people:

Leslie Albrecht Huber mentioned AnceStories as one of the "15 Genealogy Blogs You Need to Read" in the April 2010 issue of Discovering Family History (one of my favorite genealogy magazines!). Thank you so much for the kind words, Leslie!

Pat of Genealogy Gals and Mavis of Conversations with My Ancestors were two more people who kindly awarded me the Ancestors Approved Award. Thank you, ladies!

Thank you so much for thinking of me, and for your patience in my public acknowledgment of your thoughtfulness!

Ancestor Approved Award

I have been honored and blessed to be the recipient of the Ancestor Approved Award from three five six fellow geneabloggers:

Denise Levinick of The Family Curator

Kelly McNeill of Family History Fun and

George Geder of George Geder - Evangelist for African Ancestored Genealogy & So Much More
Pat of Genealogy Gals
Mavis of Conversations with My Ancestors
Bob Lord of Lord and Lady 

The Ancestor Approved Award asks that the recipient list ten things you have learned about any of your ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlighted you and pass the award along to ten other bloggers who you feel are doing their ancestors proud.

Here are ten things I've learned about my ancestors:

Surprised:

1. My 4th-great-grandfather Uzza ROBBINS was hung after he poisoned his second wife and attempted to poison her adult daughter. There's a lot more to this story, and maybe I just ought to write it up!

2. While both my parents are from Michigan, as their ancestors were for many, many generations, my maternal grandmother, her parents and both sets of grandparents lived here in Washington State (albeit on the West side) for a time in the 1920s. While most of the family eventually returned to Michigan, one set of her grandparents remained in the Pacific Northwest.

3. For years, I thought one of my 3rd-great-grandfather's brothers had died in Washington, DC and was buried in Arlington Cemetery. They were both Civil War vets from Pennsylvania who had moved to Michigan and the story was passed down that Benson had "died in Washington and was buried in Arlington." Imagine my surprise at yet another Washington State connection when I discovered that Benson had died in Washington State and was buried in the city of Arlington, Washington!

4. And in still another surprising Washington State connection, I found out that yet another brother to Benson and my ancestor had lived in Stevens County to the north of me after moving west from Michigan. I found his 1916 obituaries printed in both my local newspaper in Spokane and in the newspaper my parents read in Stevens County!

Humbled:

5. My maternal (step) grandfather was a brilliant man whose IQ was definitely in the genius range. He attended the same high school that Gerald R. Ford did in Grand Rapids, Michigan (a few years behind the future president), and actually skipped at least one grade because he was so bright. When he graduated high school, he didn't immediately go to college. He worked hard and saved money to attend the University of Michigan one year at a time. He never completed college because he ended up loaning his parents money they desperately needed (this was during the Depression), and then World War II came along. After the war, he married my divorced grandmother (a social no-no in conservative West Michigan), raised my mother as his own, and had two children with Grandma. He treated all three children equally and willed his estate equally among them. He invested well and even though he lost money during the dotcom bubble burst, this man who lived very frugally in an older middle-class neighborhood died with a small fortune to his name. Definitely one of the Greatest Generation!

6. My paternal grandfather was a hard working man who left high school after 10th grade to support his parents during the Depression (his father suffered frequent illnesses from his service during WWI). He also served during WWII, and after the war, bought land at the edge of town to build a home and business (body shop). He and my grandmother raised five children and countless foster children. They took in at least one of his younger siblings for a while, and also employed his father and his brothers in his body shop. He loved children and worked a church summer camps for years. Although he made a working class salary, he and my grandmother managed to take family road trips all over the country to see famous historical and geographical sites. When he was 67 years old, he completed his high school education and received his diploma (I have one of his notebooks from his classes). Another one of the Greatest Generation!

7. My 2nd-great-grandmother on mother's side, Jennie (TON) HOEKSTRA, was the daughter of Dutch immigrants. Both her parents died young and she ended up working as a washer woman at about 10 years of age. She had a very hard life with her step-father who married again soon after her mother died, so she lived with an uncle and aunt. She never had more than a 3rd grade education and she married my 2nd-great-grandfather who could be a bit of a tyrant. She is one of those ancestors I think about whenever I'm tempted to whine about my "hard" life!

Enlightened:

8. Although not a direct ancestor, I'm inspired by the life of my grandaunt, Barbara Dorothy VALK. A missionary to various countries in Central Africa, she remained single so that she could be an independent woman. Her amazing story can be read here.

9. I always thought of my great-grandmother, Marie (LEWIS) ROBBINS, as simply a homemaker, raising five children during the Depression, cooking, gardening, and sewing. But I discovered that she was much more three-dimensional than that! She was a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary in Conklin, Michigan, and served as its first president. She also ran a gift shop to help support the family (her husband suffered illness from serving during WWI) and I found an advertisement for it in one family member's high school yearbook!

10. Another amazing female ancestor was my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mary E. "Mae" McARTHUR. She had the courage to leave her abusive husband (who came from a locally prominent family) in 1904. It cost her so much, because she was only allowed to take her daughter with her, while her two sons were raised by her husband. It must have been heart-wrenching not to be able to take her sons with her, and even harder over the years to watch them as they both led hard lives, the youngest (my great-grandfather) ending up in prison a couple of times.

And now, a list of 10 fellow geneabloggers who are deserving of this award:

1. Apple of Apple's Tree

2. Sandra of I Never Knew My Father

3. Jessica of Jessica's Genejournal

4. Lisa of 100 Years in America (and other blogs)

5. Evelyn of A Canadian Family

6. Jennifer of But Now I'm Found

7. Henk of Trace Your Dutch Roots

8. Brian of Zalewski Family Genealogy

9. J.M. of Tracing My Roots

10. Michelle of The Turning of Generations

AnceStories is one of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs!

 

Today I received an e-mail from Diane Haddad, managing editor of Family Tree Magazine, informing me that this blog had been voted one of the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs in the Personal & Family Blog category!

Thank you to Diane for making this announcement on the Genealogy Insider blog, to Maureen Taylor for writing the Fab Forty article which will appear in the May issue of Family Tree Magazine, and to you, my readers, who were so gracious and generous in voting for me!

Congratulations to all the bloggers who won, those who were runners up (see bottom of the following list), and all who were nominated. Thanks, too, to Vickie Everhart of BeNotForgot for this lovely collage:

Family Tree Magazine's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs:

All-Around

• Creative Gene by Jasia Smasha
• footnoteMaven by footnoteMaven
• GeneaBloggers by Thomas MacEntee
• Genea-Musings by Randy Seaver

Cemetery

• The Association of Graveyard Rabbits by several authors
• Granite in My Blood by Midge Frazel

Corporate

• Ancestry.com Blog by various authors

Genetic Genealogy

• The Genetic Genealogist by Blaine Bettinger

Heritage

• George Geder by George Geder
• Scottish Genealogy News and Events by Chris Paton
• Small Leaved Shamrock by Lisa
• Steve’s Genealogy Blog by Stephen Danko
• Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog by Schelly Talalay Dardashti

How-To

• Family Matters by Denise Barrett Olson
• Genealogy Guys by George G. Morgan and Drew Smith
• Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill
• The ProGenealogists Blog by various authors

Local & Regional

• California Genealogical Society and Library Blog by Kathryn Doyle
• Sandusky History by the staff of the Sandusky (Ohio) Library Archives Research Center
• Midwestern Microhistory by Harold Henderson

News & Resources

• The Ancestry Insider by theAncestry Insider
• DearMyrtle by Pat Richley-Erickson
• Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter by Dick Eastman
• GenealogyBlog by Leland Meitzler

Photos & Heirlooms

• The Family Curator by Denise Levenick
• Shades of the Departed by footnoteMaven

Personal & Family

• Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors by Miriam Midkiff
• Apple’s Tree by anonymous
• BeNotForgot by Vickie Everhart
• Educated Genealogist by Sheri Fenley
• Greta’s Genealogy Blog by Greta Koehl
• Heritage Happens by Cheryl Fleming Palmer
• Herstoryan by Herstoryan
• Janet the Researcher by Janet Iles
• Kinexxions by Becky Wiseman
• Little Bytes of Life by Elizabeth
• Our Georgia Roots by Luckie Daniels
• WeTree by Amy Coffin
• West in New England by Bill West
• What’s Past is Prologue by Donna Pointkouski 

More to Love:

The Chart Chick
Elyse’s Genealogy Blog
Everything’s Relative
Finding the Flock 
The Genealogue
Olive Tree Genealogy Blog
Polly’s Granddaughter
Renee’s Genealogy Blog
Seeking Michigan
Think Genealogy

The You Go Genealogy Girls

Happy 101 Award

Thanks to Bill, Russ, and Linda for honoring me with the Happy 101 Award!

The responsibilities of receiving this award include naming ten things that make you happy and then passing it along to ten friends.  Ten things that make me happy are (in no particular order):

1. Breaking down a genealogical brick wall - need I say more?

2. Seeing one of my special needs students accomplish or learn something - one of my favorites was when I taught a 12-year-old autistic student to tie his shoes, and then later he tied shoes for all the other students who weren't able to do their own

3. Working with a wonderful team of colleagues in our Special Ed classroom - we have so much fun, we work very hard, and we have each others' backs

4. Having lunch with fellow EWGS members at Nordstrom's once a month - good food, good company, and a whole hour of talking genealogy - it doesn't get much better than that!

5. Teaching someone how to trace their family tree - seeing others break down their brickwalls is just as much fun as breaking down your own!

6. Getting together with extended family for holidays and birthday celebrations - I have an awesome family and we have always been there for each other

7. Cleaning and organizing my home (OK, I know I'm weird!) - there's a sense of accomplishment and peace that comes when things are in order

8. Finding online genealogical or historical resources to share with others - thus my Online Historical Directories and Online Historical Newspapers websites, as well as tips I share on this blog

9. Traveling - by car, by sea, by rail, by air; I love getting away and seeing  new places, and I just don't do it often enough!

10. Doing something creative, like needlework or drawing (a new skill I picked up a few months ago) - listening to music while I make something useful and/or beautiful is very soothing

The ten people I would like to honor with this award are:

1. Anne of The French Genealogy Blog

2. Jennifer of But Now I'm Found

3. Ernie of Ernie's Journeys

4. Luckie of Our Georgia Roots

5. Gena of Gena's Genealogy

6. Pam of Granny's Genealogy

7. Amir of I Dream of Genea(logy)

8. Janet of Janet the Researcher

9. Charles of Mikkel's Hus

10. Linda of From Axer to Ziegler

All of these people are a part of the geneablogosphere, a community that makes me very happy, indeed!

The Genea-Speak Award

I've been honored to be chosen by Thomas McEntee of Destination Austin Family to receive the Genea-Speak Award. This award was created by texican wife at Mountain Genealogist and is given "for excellence in writing, speaking, and the promoting of good genealogical practices." The requirement upon receiving the award is to pass it on to at least two deserving recipients. Thomas had extremely kind words to say about me and I was doubly honored to be included with Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings as a recipient.

I would like to present this award to two women whose writing, speaking and promotion of good genealogical practices is well-known to those in the genealogical world: Lisa Alzo and Lisa Louise Cooke.

Lisa Alzo is a genealogist and writer who currently resides in New York. She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of seven books and numerous magazine articles, and has also been an avid genealogist for 20 years. She uses her expertise to teach online genealogy courses and is a frequently invited speaker for national conferences, genealogical and historical societies. She maintains a blog at The Accidental Genealogist and her website is LisaAlzo.com. Although I've never had the privilege of hearing her speak, I have read many of her articles in various genealogical magazines, a list of which you can see here. Lisa challenges me with her research and writing, because she has one of the more difficult ethnic groups to research: Eastern European. Although I do not have Eastern European heritage, her work inspires me to leave no stone unturned and to keep persevering, even when resources are slim!

Lisa Louise Cooke is the Queen of Genealogical Podcasting. She created the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an online genealogy radio show available through her web site www.genealogygems.TV and iTunes. Her podcast and website strive to help listeners make the most of their family history research time by providing innovative ideas and fascinating interviews with genealogy experts. And she provides creative ways for listeners to share their findings with their families through innovative projects and motivational stories. Additionally, she offers the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast (via subscription), and is the host of Family Tree Magazine's Podcast and Personal Life Media's Family History Podcast. She has written a book, Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies, produces videocasts for Family History Expos (the leading genealogy conference provider), and is a much-requested speaker at genealogy workshops and conferences. Lisa's podcasts are entertaining, informative, and educational and I am inspired every time I listen!

Please help me in congratulating these two fine award recipients!

Click on the Image Above to Adopt a Needy Child or Senior in Your Community

Genealogy Blog Awards Announced by Tamura Jones

Tamura Jones has announced his pick for the 2009 Genealogy Blog Awards. Seven blogs were chosen, along with two honorable mentions:

The Graveyard Rabbit

The Chart Chick

footnoteMaven

Me and My Database : : Geek Genealogy

(Honorable Mention: The Gramps Project Blog)

Elyse Doerflinger's YouTube Genealogy Channel

(Honorable Mention: Climb Your Tree by Lucy)

Forensic Genealogy

Shades of the Departed

Visit Tamura's blog to see the categories in which each blog excelled, as well as links to the blogs themselves.

Congratulations!

Click on the Image Above to Adopt a Needy Child or Senior in Your Community

Vote for Your Favorite Genealogy Blog

Hmm...this is hard for me.

It's hard to write this post and it was hard to vote.

Family Tree Magazine last month requested nominations for their upcoming Best Genealogy Blogs article for their May 2010 issue. I didn't mention on my blog before because a) I've been extremely busy since the school year started which has prevented me from blogging much; b) I've had on-and-off computer issues that have only recently been resolved; and c) I really don't like mentioning contests in which I could possibly be a nominee...it's just not my style. However I did nominate several of my favorites. The nominations are now in (131 blogs!) and readers can vote here until November 5. There are ten categories in which to pick 40 blogs. I'm honored that AnceStories made the All-Around category:

These bloggers give you a little (or a lot) of everything: news, research advice, their own family stories, photos, opinions and more...

Congratulations to all the others who were nominated. Every one is well-deserving of this award, and I can attest it was very difficult for me to choose only the 40!

The Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence

I was honored to be awarded by ten geneabloggers with the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence a couple of weeks ago. What on earth is this award, you say?

The award was created in honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown by Terry Thornton, author of “Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi”, who explained that “Janice told us all about the word ‘puckerbrush’ in an article she posted August 27, 2007 at “Cow Hampshire.”

Terry elaborated a bit further in a comment: "On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth. So it is with the growth of blogs — so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush. And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I’m honoring."

Terry issued this challenge: Henceforth these awards will be called the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. All blog authors are hereby challenged to name the ten blogs which have influenced their writing the most and list them as a tribute to Janice — the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Awards for Excellence.

The following very kindly named me as an influence in their blogging. Thank you to each one of you for your kind words and thoughtful consideration of me:

1. Colleen McHugh of Orations of OMcHodoy

2. Becky Wiseman of kinexxions

3. Bill West of West in New England

4. Denise Olson of Family Matters

5. Pam Warren of Granny's Genealogy

6. Amy Crooks of Untangled Family Roots

7. George Geder of George Geder: Family Historian - Photo Restoration Artist

8. Julie Cahill Tarr of GenBlog

9. Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family

10. Kathryn Doyle of the California Genealogical Society and Library blog

As you can imagine, it is very difficult to choose only 10 blogs that have most influenced me, because I can't think of a single genealogy blog that hasn't influenced me in some way. In the list below, the first six mentioned were the first six genealogy blogs I ever stumbled across. The subsequent four are those who I feel have brought a quality standard to genealogy blogging that I hope to emulate!

1. GenealogyBlog by Leland Meitzler - the first time I heard the word blog was in 2005 when my friend, mentor, and fellow EWGS member Donna Potter Phillips stood up in front of our society and mentioned that Leland was starting a blog on genealogy. At that time, it was a team effort, and Donna was one of the bloggers. This blog has evolved over time and is, in my opinion, the go-to place to learn about all that's new and up-and-coming in the genealogical world. Leland is also one of the few genealogy bloggers that I met, although at the time, geneablogging wasn't as big as it now is!

2. Genealogy Education by Ken Aitken - Although Ken has since passed away, his son has thankfully continued to leave Ken's useful blog online for those of us who are involved in genealogy instruction and presentations. This just goes to show that the words we write and the lessons we leave can influence others far beyond our life span.

3. Genea-Musings by Randy Seaver - When I began reading Genealogy Education, I noticed there was this one reader that was always commenting on Ken's great posts. I soon discovered that the reader had his own blog, and it was then that I became a fan of Genea-Musings! Uncle Randy always has great, relevant information in his posts with detailed reviews and statistics, and reading his blog makes me wish I was independently wealthy so that I could blog 24-7 as he seems to do (my summer vacation as a school staff member gives me just a taste of full-time blogging...enough to whet my appetite and frustrate me all school year long!).

4. GeneaBlogie by Craig Manson - when I first came across Craig's blog, I was intrigued by the description of his ancestry he had listed at that time on the blog. Craig's roots are African, Native American, and European, and I thoroughly enjoy reading about his diverse research. He brings his expertise as a law professor to both his research and his writing. Craig's blog was the first African-American genealogy blog I came across and it was by reading his that I learned the worth of reading genealogy blogs written by those with different ethnicities and races than my own. Unlike researching American roots that lead into Western Europe, those with African, Native American, Eastern European, Asian, or Jewish roots must use a variety of alternate records and resources and are constantly challenged to think "outside the box," valuable lessons for any of us trying to break down our brick walls.

5. Creative Gene by Jasia - there isn't a geneablogger out there that isn't familiar with Jasia's Carnival of Genealogy, the oldest and most consistent genealogy blog carnival in existence. It was by writing and submitting posts for the carnival that my blog became widely read and I'm certain the same is true for many other bloggers. I connected with Jasia because of our shared Michigan roots, although our heritage comes from different parts of Europe. Jasia is one of the top geneabloggers that I would love to meet someday, because she is more than someone who also blogs about her genealogy; she has become a good friend.

6. The Genealogue by Chris Dunham - Chris does a couple of services to the geneablogging world. First and foremost, he reminds us not to take ourselves, our blogging, or our research too seriously! Secondly, his creation of the Genealogy Blog Finder has put order into categorizing the geneablogging world. There were a few genealogy blog lists out there at the beginning, but they weren't done very well either in organization or in a clean, easy-on-the eyes format and design. Chris is an integral part of the geneablogging world; where would we be without his Top Ten lists?!

7. footnoteMaven by (who else?) the footnoteMaven - my fellow Washingtonian and geneablogger (another whom I've had the pleasure to meet) - has set a wonderful standard of citing sources on her main blog as well as documenting historic photots on her quality digital publication, Shades of the Departed, with its accompanying I Smile for the Camera! Carnival. There is a quote by Ralph Fletcher that always reminds me of fM when I read it: "Artists develop a love for the feel for their tools, the smell and texture of clay, wood, or paint. Writers are no different. Writers love words."

8. Steve's Genealogy Blog by Stephen Danko - Like Jasia, Steve explores his Polish roots on his blog, and like the footnoteMaven, he is equally attentive to citing his sources carefully. His is a unique blog, combining a studious research log with the occasional personal genealogical story submitted to a carnival, or highlighting the flora of his home state of California via photography. I've learned much about Polish history from his blog and although I've yet to find any Eastern European heritage in my family tree, it fascinates me nonetheless!

9. Family Matters by Denise Olsen - I now read a number of technology/genealogy blogs that have been helpful to no end, but Denise's was the first I read, and in my opinion, the best. She has the ability to explain technology in a way a layperson can understand, and better yet, can clarify the applications of the particular item she's blogging about to its use in genealogy. Like many of the above geneabloggers, she has more than one blog, and I've enjoyed learning about Florida history at her Moultrie Creek.

10. Destination: Austin Family by Thomas MacEntee - Although he arrived later on the scene than the above nine, I can't imagine the geneablogosphere without Thomas. He is a leader, a go-getter, and nothing he puts his hand to is unfinished or incomplete. Without him, there would be no Geneabloggers Group on Facebook, no Facebook Bootcamp for Geneabloggers, no Geneabloggers website...in fact the Geneabloggers as a "formal" group simply would not exist. He is every geneablogger's cheerleader, and whenever I think of excellence, Thomas always comes to mind. He is another dear friend that I hope to meet someday soon.

As I've said, listing only 10 of the most influential geneabloggers is nigh impossible. Everyone of the 300+ blogs on my Google Reader is an important part of my genealogical and blogging life, and I thank each and every one of you for the work you do!

One Lovely Blog Award

Alana of A Twig in My Tree has kindly named AnceStories as a recipient for the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you, Alana!

I'm passing on the award to seven more blogs/bloggers. First, the GeneaBloggers:

Generations Gone By's Weblog - because she keeps on blogging even though she's an extremely busy mom whose duties often get in the way of blogging (boy! can I relate). She motivates me!

Itawamba History Review: The Itawamba Historical Society - full of lovely photos from the South and the Southern past

Gena's Genealogy - Gena's always blogging about great resources, and I especially enjoy her Church Record Sunday series.

I'm also nominating some non-genealogy bloggers' blogs (gasp! can you believe it?):

Scribbit: A Blog About Motherhood in Alaska - a title that was intriguing no matter what, but when Alaska is the place where you grew up, well, that just makes it all the more compelling to read (a touch from home).

Summer's Nook - I found Summer from her genealogy blog on an LDS website, but got hooked on her personal blog about motherhood with some major posts on her creativity (website design, cake decorating, etc.) thrown in.

Jennifer Fawbush Photography - Jennie's creative photography of infants, children, and families in natural surroundings is a work of art and love. The fact that Jennie is my niece (OK, technically she's my husband's niece) has absolutely nothing to do with gifting her this award. At all. I mean it.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far - Apple's genealogy blog,
Apple's Tree, was nominated about 347 times for this award (and justly so!), but I like her personal blog just as well. I wish Apple didn't live across the continent from me, because I would love to be her next door neighbor.

I'm a KreativBlogger

I would like to thank all the kind readers and fellow Genea-Bloggers who gave me the KreativBlogger award:

Debbie of Blanton Family Roots and Branches

Becky from kinnexxions

Granny Pam from Granny's Genealogy

Alana from A Twig in My Tree

Also thanks to Olive's Granddaughter of Grandma's Stitches for blessing my AnceStories2 blog with this award.

So many bloggers have been given this award that it would be very difficult to find more to tag. But thank you, so kindly!

The Proximidade Award

Janet Iles of Janet the Researcher and Amir Dekel of I Dream of Genea(logy) awarded me with the Proximidade Award:

These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I love how many of the recipients are forwarding this award on to newer genea-bloggers! It's that kind of spirit which includes the newbies as well as us "oldies" that makes the genea-blogging community such a welcoming one! I decided to gift some of my fellow "oldies" before they got "taken". They are all pioneers in the genea-blogging movement, and their blogs are all on my must-read list:

The footnoteMaven
Jasia of Creative Gene
Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie
Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi
Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings
Kathryn Doyle of the California Genealogical Society and Library Blog
Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems News
Denise Olsen of Moultrie Creek

And thank you, Janet and Amir! I'm honored!

2008 Artistry of Genealogy Awards - the Joke's on Me!

You're going to laugh when you read this. At least I did, because the joke is on me. On Wednesday, I received the following e-mail:

The Photo Preservation Center is announcing the 2008 Artistry of Genealogy Awards through an upcoming Businesswire news release and your site was mentioned. Congratulations and I hope the attention draws many more people to your excellent site. An advance copy of the release is posted on our Tales from the World of Photo Scanning Blog – www.blog.ScanMyPhotos.com. We will make sure to have your site hyperlinked on the official Businesswire release. Thanks for your commitment to also helping preserve families history and memories.

Well, I had never heard of this organization and to be quite frank, there were a couple of spelling and grammatical errors in the subject line and message, and the link embedded in the message led to a 404 error page--all normal indicators of a possible spam message. So I deleted the e-mail. Yes, I did!

On Thursday, Becky's congratulatory post at kinnexions popped up in my feed reader, followed by many others in the geneablogosphere, and suddenly I realized this was authentic! Sheepishly, I retrieved the e-mail from my trash folder and replied with a humble "thank you." Are you laughing at me yet? That's all right. I'm laughing right along with you!

Here is the correct link that will take you to the blog, and here is the press release on Yahoo! through Businesswire. I'm not going to repeat the whole message here as most of you have probably read it on other blogs, but I did want to mention a few things.

First of all, thank you to the Photo Preservation Center for creating these awards and to all those who voted for AnceStories as Best Personal Genealogy Blog (Renee Zamora of Renee's Genealogy Blog also received this award). I'm sorry that I didn't recognize the award for what it was at first glance!

Secondly, congratulations to all my fellow award winners! I'm honored to be listed among them. Every one of the recipients was familiar to me at first glance, with the exception of Favorite Genealogy Research Guide: Genealogy Research Guides, Tips and Online Records. After investigating this site, I slapped my forehead and said, "Oh, it's Joe!" Yes, Joe Beine of www.deathindexes.com and Genealogy Roots Blog. ResearchGuides.net is the front door to his portal of wonderful pages of links to online records. The other one that seemed at first unfamiliar but turned out to be part of Illya D'Addezio's conglomeration of sites (think GenealogyToday) was Family Tree Connection, which won Most Popular Genealogy Database.

One thing I learned from all this (besides not to look a gift horse in the mouth!) was that April is The Great American Photo Scanning Month! As the hostess of Scanfest, I think that's simply terrific! In honor of that event, ScanMyPhotos.com has created the following offer:

Throughout April, ScanMyPhotos.com is providing free photo scans to all members of four leading social networking sites; subscribers to Flickr, MySpace, Blogger and Facebook can have up to 1,000 4x6" photos scanned to DVD without charge when they mail their pictures to ScanMyPhotos.com and pay $19.95 for return S&H, along with the downloadable order form.

This sounds like a sweet deal, and would work wonderfully for all those modern photos you have sitting around in boxes that need to be digitized. As for the antique or one-of-a-kind old family photos or documents, I urge you to join me and scan them during Scanfest (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday this coming week) and Spring Break Scan-a-thon, currently in progress. If you can't make it this week, the April Scanfest will be held Sunday, April 27th from 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

AnceStories is FuelMyBlog's Blog of the Day!

I was stunned to open my e-mail this afternoon and find a message announcing that AnceStories was the Blog of the Day at FuelMyBlog!

Many thanks to the kind folks over there who nominated me!

Another Must-Visit Website: Shoestring Genealogy

With my new layout and then the hubbub over the Ancestry.com situation, you may not have noticed that I have added another site to my Must-Visit Websites area (left-hand sidebar). "Shoestring Genealogy focuses on lowering the costs of research and raising the quality of information obtained," according to their mission statement. As a family historian and genealogist by avocation, I am always looking for prudent ways to cut my expenses without decreasing the quality of my research. There is a wealth of treasure on this site, from links to free forms, presentations, chat rooms, and tips, just to skim the surface. Dae Powell has done a wonderful job with the content, as well as designing a fantastic new look to the site (for us Firefox users, this site works best with Internet Explorer). Dae also created--at my request for something that would fit my blog's sidebar and stand out--the beautiful linking graphic that you see under "Must-Visit Websites."

I was honored that Dae awarded me the GENTREK Seal of Approval, even though I had never heard of GENTREK before! I learned that it "is a special teaching chat that presents a different genealogy topic every week to help you along your GENealogy TREK." The topics are listed in alpha order, by author, and by presentation date, for ease of navigation. Don't they look interesting?

There are a lot of fabulous resources at these sites, and I encourage you to browse around. As my friend Donna Potter Phillips says, "if you don't spend at least a half-an-hour on a new site, you are missing things!"

Nice Matters!

I received a very nice message from Francis of Caught in the Stream that he had nominated me (and others) for the Nice Matters Award. I am so honored, Francis: honored that you chose me for the award, and honored that you think I'm a nice person (I'm sure my teens could set you straight on that one)!

I decided that I would post this at both this and my personal blog, &Etc., and nominate fellow bloggers from both blogging worlds.

So first up I nominate Jasia of Creative Gene and Creative Genealogy. A genuinely nice person, she recently made my day by posting some links to some great Dutch and Scottish digital scrapbooking pages...they're beautiful! I haven't even tried my hand at digital scrapbooking, and I'm just in love with them! Except when she's getting her e-mail account at Yahoo! hacked, Jasia always has something nice to say! ;-)

Secondly, I am nominating both Colleen of The Oracle of OMcHodoy and Craig of GeneaBlogie for being nice enough to join us at Scanfest yesterday, and bringing two new "faces" to our group. (See Craig, I told you I'd get you a prize!) Besides, they have two genuinely nice blogs which I enjoy reading as often as they post.

Next is Randy of Genea-Musings; I really like how he has chosen different posts from various blogs each week to highlight. It's a nice way to get others to go visit blogs they might be unaware of. Randy's always got nice things to say about other blogs.

And certainly not least, I nominate Becky of kinnexions, who was so nice to share in detail her experiences at the FGS Conference with those of us who couldn't attend. I'm sure she was the only genea-blogger out there doing so. Reading about the conference made me want to attend the next one!

Oh, and gentleman, in case you don't want to post this pink girly-looking award on your blog, there's a nice masculine one available as well:

Actually, everyone on my "Blogroll" could easily be up for nomination. After all, why on earth would I link to a mean person's blog! ;-) But I tried to keep it short, and also be nice to the ones who don't enjoy participating in memes or meme-like activities (you know who you are!). The idea is to spread it around a bit.