2011 Top 10 Adventures in Genealogy

This has been a very busy year. I joined a genealogy discussion group, traveled to several new repositories and agreed to lead a library program.

I have met new genealogy friends here on this blog. Some we discovered have family connections.

As I look forward with great anticipation here is a last look back the top 10 posts from 2011. Preparing this list reminds me why I started writing in the first place.

1.) Advent Calendar 2011 - Vintage Christmas Cards

Thomas MacEntee over at Geneabloggers once again hosted the wonderful Advent Calendar series.

As part of these post the most popular was a look at vintage cards discovered preserved in my husband's baby book.

I am forever grateful that my mother-in-law kept this lovely piece of family history.

2.) SNGF - Signs You Have GOCD

This post came had its origins from one of Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posts.

This particular challenge was to compose a list of symptoms of genealogy OCD. This was pure fun! In fact I laughed out loud writing this post. Hubby must have thought I finally went over the cliff. This is one of my own personal all time favorites.

By the way, do you have GOCD?

3.) Revolutionary Rebel in the Family

Discovering that my husband's ancestor was a member of the Sons of Liberty and participated in the Boston Tea Party.

This was the most significant family history find of the year! Impressed my entire family, even the children.

4.) Aunt Kate- The Funeral Crasher

This tale was shared while conducting an oral history interview with my mother. My great-aunt Kate marched to her own drummer and has kept me entertained for years.

5.) "Heritage Pie Chart" Revisited

This post was a follow-up to another Saturday Night Genealogy challenge from Randy Seaver.

I had lots of fun creating various family heritage pie charts. In the first post for this challenge I made pie charts for myself and my husband.

Then inspiration struck and I joined both to create one for our children. Interesting results ensued.

6.) Surprise Connection - Hello, Cousin!

A wonderful occurrence came about when Heather Wilkinson Rojo left an interesting comment on my blog. Heather read the Revolutionary Rebel in the Family post and realized she had a family connection to my husband!

This is a perfect example of how connecting through blogging bears amazing fruit!

7.) One Less Brick in the Wall

Read the details of a wonderful discovery while visiting the local genealogical society. On their shelves was information about my great-great-grandfather, Henry Wakefield. Up until this trip he was my most stubborn brick wall.

8.) When the Lights Go Out

This summer Hurricane Irene unleashed her fury on my hometown. Rained poured and winds howled the entire night. In the morning there were trees tumbled down through my neighborhood.

Early one we realized electricity would not be restored for days. In fact we were without for almost a week.

What is a family historian to do? Get organized!

That is when I discovered many documents filed away years ago. Once unearthed they revealed important family information.

9.) The Moment You Knew

Lynn Palermo of The Armchair Genealogist had posed the question "What is Your Story-What Is The Moment You Knew?"

Lynn wanted us to share when we realized family history would become an important part of our lives.

10.) Family Discover on eBay

My husband's grandfather, Christain Wismer Ruth was an evangelist and pastor.

In the course of research I discovered Christian wrote several books throughout his career. Here I share discovering one of these gems on eBay.

What an exciting year was 2011! Now onto 2012 and new adventures in genealogy.

Happy New Year!