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Friday, December 31, 2010

Playing Favorites

It did not take me long to pick out my own favorite posts from the past year; there weren’t many. Actually, there were five, or, if you count each post of a four-part series, eight. It’s not that I don’t care for most of the other posts (said the mother to her pouting children); it’s just that not many particularly stood out for me.

My blog is a labor of love, a way of sharing with others who share my love of genealogy and a medium to get the cousin bait out there. So I don’t always try to “knock one out of the ballpark.” I do make extra efforts for Memory Monday posts and Carnival of Genealogy entries, but the driving reason behind this is to write down my memories in the case of the former and to write down my research processes and results in the case of the latter (heartfelt thanks to Jasia to providing the inspiration and the prod to do this).

My quick review of last year’s posts reveals one of the reasons that my writing plan for next year includes more blog posts on my research: other than Friday newsletter summaries, there weren’t many posts on this subject. I don’t count Surname Saturday; that’s pure cousin bait and does not address “Here is why this family is interesting/difficult/surprising” or “Here’s how I did it.” The newsletter summaries may continue, but I’m hoping to have some kind of weekly “This Week’s Research Problem” feature.

Here are the five:

Ode to My Family’s History: Through the Lens of Gilbert and Sullivan

This almost did not get written. I cannot write poetry – but lyrics to catchy tunes, that’s another matter. A few early tries yielded a couple of lines for several different tunes. I almost gave up. Then the Long Boring Meeting happened. Notebook came out. Pencil flew. Inspiration combined with silliness was covered by an earnest expression, and the various presenters and speakers thought I was fascinated by their golden words.


Memory Monday: The Tree in Our Basement

The number of responses to this surprised me. It was one of those minor things that had more significance for my family than we realized at the time.


From the Will to the Estate Packet: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Definitely a labor of love: A write-up of one of my most exciting and astounding research discoveries. However, procrastination often smothers inspiration. I give all credit to Jasia’s Carnival of Genealogy at Creative Gene for the fact that this series ever saw the light.


Greenville Love

This was the companion piece to “From the Will to the Estate Packet.” My first research trip turned out to be the Best Vacation Ever, even though I spent a lot of it in the Greenville County Public Library.


Memory Monday: The Flower Bowl

Another surprise post. Little things loom large.


This will probably be my last post of 2010, so I would like to wish a Very Happy New Year to all of the readers of this blog. In the coming year, may you find the time to enjoy your families and do your research, enjoy the good health you will need to do both, make some amazing discoveries and smash at least one big brick wall.

10 comments:

  1. Greta, What a nice list. The first two are new to me, and of course I remember Greenville Love and the Flower Bowl quite well...it was fun looking and reading the posts again. Thanks for sharing these. But, you could have done a list of 20, they would all have been great.

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  2. Your posts are all good, Greta. It's always interesting to learn which writings a writer herself loves best.

    I'm looking forward to reading your research posts this coming year. I think it's interesting to learn how others do their research and what they find.

    Happy New Year!

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  3. I highly approve of your list!

    (Like that matters, I mean, tee hee, it is YOUR list!)

    Happy New Year Greta~! 2010 was good, lets make 2011 even better!!

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  4. Thanks for the shout out, Greta!

    I'm always delighted with your contributions to the COG. You raise the bar and inspire many others to be better writers. Thank you for that!

    Happy New Year, Greta!

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  5. ༒*¨*•.HAPPY NEW YEAR.•*¨*༒

    I have enjoyed every post penned from your blog in 2010. Can't wait to see what 2011 brings.

    -fM

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  6. Happy New Year Greta! I always enjoy visiting your blog and look forward to wherever 2011 takes you.

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  7. Terrific list. I especially appreciated being pointed back to the earlier posts I'd not read (when I was living in those dark days before I discovered Geneabloggers). Your G&S odes left me speechless. I can only applaud.

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  8. Greta, I'm so glad that you posted this recap. I missed the Will to Estate Packet series and was glad to go back and read it. What a great piece of research! Congrats.

    Here's to more happy finds in 2011.

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  9. The flower bowl was my favorite-I even posted it on my facebook page : ) But the tree in your basement was a close 2nd for me.

    I hope this year is all you want it to be!

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  10. Barbara - Thank you for the kind comments and for the idea.

    Nancy - You're right; it was interesting to see which subject were closest to bloggers' hearts.

    Carol - Happy New Year Carol - may 2011 take you interesting places, in both the physical and metaphorical sense!

    Jasia - Thanks again for doing the COG; it is such a big part of the heart of genea-blogging.

    fM - Thank you, and I also am excited about 2011 for Shades and fM!

    Apple - My best wishes to you and Apple's Tree for 2011!

    NR - You know, it's hard to think of genea-blogging before you were here; it's amazing what a difference a year can make. Thank you for your encouragement!

    FC - Glad you enjoyed the recap - this was in many ways my first year with a full genealogy experience. I look forward to learning more from your blog in 2011.

    Tipper - My daughters just smile when I tell them how popular that post was - guess I should thank them for providing such good blog fodder! And I look forward to seeing what Blind Pig will have in store for 2011!

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