Thursday, January 6

I'm "Ancestor Approved"!

My first blogging award! :)

Lisa from Genealojournal was kind enough to pass on the "Ancestor Approved" award, which she received from Liz (at My Tapley Tree...and its Branches).

The "Ancestor Approved" award was created in March 2010 by Leslie Ann Ballou of Ancestors Live Here as a way to show "how much I appreciate and enjoy...blogs full of tips and tricks as well as funny and heartwarming stories...".

Recipients are to list ten things which surpised, humbled or enlightened you about your ancestors, before passing it onward to ten other bloggers.  My list contains a few non-ancestral things, but which are genealogy related nevertheless.  I had such a great time coming up with this list, I had enough material for two lists!  However, I've contained myself only 10 things, as requested:

1. I am humbled by the amount of work volunteers (bloggers and otherwise) do, on the web and off...

2. I am humbled by the kindness and friendliness of geneabloggers community...

3. I am enlightened by geneabloggers sharing their family's stories and their research triumphs (and woes), helping me realize research possibilities...

4. I can't say I was surprised when I discovered that half of my paternal heritage was Scottish (with a name like Cameron, how could it be otherwise?!), but I was surprised by how early they immigrated to Canada (between 1820s-1830s)...

5. I was surprised when I discovered that one of my ancestors was one of the first settlers in a township - that just tickled me pink! ;)

6. I was surprised that very few of my ancestors (or their relatives) served in the Great War (though I really shouldn't be, since they were farmers and farmers were, for the most part, exempt from service...)

7. I was both humbled and enlightened by ancestors who came to Canada at a time when it was nothing but wilderness and carved out their homes (sometimes literally) with their hands...

8. I was extremely surprised to learn that my grandmother's first husband - and the man I was told was my grandfather (my mom's father) - died 2 years before she was born...this is still a "Big Secret" (shhh).

9. I am humbled by the kindness and helpfulness of librarians, archivists' and society members.  Working from the other end of the stick (currently in a library and previously in an archives), I know how busy it can get. 

10. I am enlightened by how much I'm learning every day - not just about my ancestors and their families, but by digging into their lives, my appetite for history has only been wetted even more...

Many, many, many geneabloggers have already received this award since it's inception in almost a year ago.  So forgive me if you've already received it, but this is my list of ten geneabloggers who are not only doing their ancestors proud, but have also inspired, assisted and entertained me.  There are many more, but since I could only list ten...

1. Kathy at Family Matters
2. Ian at Ian Hadden's Family History
3. Caroline at Caro's Family Chronicles
4. Kerry at Clue Wagon
5. Lori at Family Trees May Contain Nuts
6. Lorine at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog
7. Spitalfields Life
8. Bill at West in New England
9. Amy at We Tree Genealogy
10. Elise at Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees

Jenn ;)

4 comments:

Kathy Reed said...

Jenn,
I was just catching up on reading my favorite blogs and noticed that you listed my blog for the "Ancestor Approved" Award. If I had to nominate a recipient, you would definitely be on my list.

Thanks.
Kathy

Bill West said...

Thank you, Jenn!

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Thank you for the nomination! What a nice surprise!

Lori E said...

Well this is nice isn't it. Thank you. I know my ancestors would be thrilled that our family is so interested in who they were and how they lived.