The 2011 iGene Awards for Kinexxions

It's time for the Annual iGene Awards in which we announce our “best” blog posts from last year in five categories. Created by Jasia at Creative Gene for the Carnival of Genealogy, this year marks the 5th anniversary of the awards.

And this year, the ceremony for kinexxions is coming to you from Salt Lake City! What better place for such an event? And now, the winners...

Best Picture: Going through my Mother's papers after her death last February, I discovered a photograph that I had never seen before. In Mom :: Before she was Mom I presented that photo and several a lot of others. Is this my Mom?

Best Screen Play: The post Joslin Rendezvous :: The Homestead discusses a few of the trials and tribulations encountered by Virgil Joslin when he homesteaded in South Dakota in the early 1900s. Additional material written by his son Irwin would be used to create a feature-length movie that would star Sam Elliott and Meryl Streep as Virgil and Mary Joslin.

Best Documentary (investigative research): This past summer I decided to take on my Switzer family in Columbiana County, Ohio and found that there were Not One, Not Two, Not Three, but Four of Them! with “them” being men named Jacob Switzer. One of them was my ancestor, but which one? Yes, this is one of a series of posts, all of which are listed here.

Best Biography: The rules are going to be stretched a little in that two series of posts are being selected, neither were actually “written” by me. The Life of Hazlette Brubaker presents the story of my Grandmother's life, as told in her own words, in a series of 15 articles.

The Berlin Family :: John D. and Susannah is the first in a series of articles that includes family Bible Records as well as 35 letters written between 1861-1895 between family members. (Links to those documents are included at the bottom of the selected post.)

Best Comedy: Humorous writing is not really my forte (I've often been told that I have a very dry sense of humor, almost humorless.) At any rate, I've selected One Half of an Old Mare called Van Dora for this category. Maybe you “had to be there” but finding Van Dora in the inventory of the estate of William B. Jones had Carol and me cracking up for several days.

And that brings to a close the iGene Award Ceremony for 2011... hmm, well, not just yet. Since I've been doing a bit of traveling I thought I'd modify the categories in several areas and present a “travel” version also...

Best Picture: Nature's Trifecta

Best Screen Play time with Geneabloggers: Ah... Anastasia and St. Augustine

Best Documentary: It Sounded Too Good to Pass By

Best Biography Unique Event: Badlands :: Where the Buffalo Do Roam

Best Comedy: A Great Big Ball of Twine

Written for the 114th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.