All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!

footnoteMaven's 1st iGene Award Winners For 2007!

We're here on the red carpet with the footnoteMaven who has nominated several of her 2007 Blog Posts for award consideration. Red Carpet trends come and go, but some styles are classic. Maven is wearing just such a classic style; a beautiful white silk and lace gown designed specifically for her by the House of Worth, Paris.

Maven's escort for the evening's festivities is robberBaron. Maven has been seeing Baron since her very public split from that other famous nome de plume, Mark Twain. It is rumored that when Mrs. Clemens saw a preview of one of tonight's winners, she ordered Sam home for good.

Jasia of Creative Gene will host the 1st iGene Awards Gala. When asked what she thought of Jasia as the hostess for the Awards Gala, Maven said, "Jasia will be a terrific hostess for the 1st iGene Awards Gala. She is smart, quick, funny, loves to blog and is a great gal. Her own Carnival of Genealogy is a crowd pleaser. What else could one ask for?"

The house lights have flickered so join the crowd inside the Kodak Theatre and let the festivities begin.

Best Picture
Best old family photo that appeared on this blog in 2007.

And The iGene Goes to:

Finding That Two Hundreth Edwardian Woman In A White Dress

Absolutely stunning - what a work of love on your part. One of the best posts
of the year IMHO! . . .Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings

The Birthday Club - Lamoure, N.D. - 1911

There's a certain sadness associated with the ability to go back in time, to view the past and future of faces in a photograph, faces frozen in time. I loved sharing the real lives of the Edwardian women in white dresses pictured in this photograph.

Best Screen Play

The family story that would make the best movie.

And The iGene Goes To:

Wedding in Nirvana

I am swept back in time to those high society events those of us in the "
fly over" states canonly read about! What a wonderful set of
documents/photos to "tell" the story of your grandparents
and what a wonderful job you've done letting their
story tell itself. . . Terry Thornton - Hill Country

The Wedding Party
Louis Salter, Julia Salter, E. Jesse Greene, Lillian Greene, Unknown

Weddings in New York City during the early 1900s were most often held in the home of the bride's parents. As the Salters lived in Carnegie Hall other wedding arrangements had to be made for Jesse and Lillian.

Burton Holmes offered his New York Studio "Nirvana" to the young man of whom he had become so fond. This was a wonderful gift from Holmes to the young couple. "Nirvana" was a famous New York studio and gathering place for the elite that were Holmes' friends and associates.

Wedding in Nirvana is coming to the big screen and fM is very pleased to announce the following have been cast in the lead roles for this period piece.


Best Documentary
Best informational Article in 2007

And The iGene Goes to:

Wait It's A Tie!

What's In A Name?

Incredible post, Maven! Wow!. . . Miriam - AnceStories

Family names (hereditary names or surnames) originated at many different times in many different places. The modern family name is of medieval European origin and we can thank bureaucracies for its inception. As tax collectors, bailiffs, sheriffs, law enforcement and court officers needed a more precise form of identification of individuals, the surname was born.

And The iGene Also Goes To:

Dating Old Photographs :: Becky's Mystery Photograph #9

Beautiful, beautiful analysis! I tend to do things intuitively, and it is a
great help to see your detailed reasoning (a lesson to us all...)
I am a footnoteMaven fan . . . Chery Kinnick - Nordic Blue

A dating analysis of a family photograph on the kinexxions blog that Becky Wiseman lists as Mystery Photo #9.

Best Biography
Best Biographical Article Written in 2007

And The iGene Goes To:

There'll Be No Hell For Dogs

As usual you post an article that really makes one think about family,
relationships, and adversity.Thank you for your frank,
well-written story. . . Janice Brown - Cow Hampshire

My father, a love story. He was the most handsome man I have ever seen. Movie star good looks handsome, and he was my father. From little girls to little old ladies he could turn them all into babbling idiots just by acknowledging them. He was a farm boy from Missouri who was totally unaware of the havoc his good looks created with women. Oh, women noticed him, but he did not notice women. From the day he set eyes on my mother there was no other woman in the world.

Best Comedy Story
A sad and poignant story for 2007. Funny? You be the judge.

And The iGene Goes To:

The Tale Is Here To Tell

Drink has been the undoing of many of the men in my family but never so
colorfully as yours. Good for Molly!. . . Apple of Apple's Tree

The Campbell men, it has often been lamented, didn't have the strength or conviction of the Campbell women. Drink was often their undoing. Drink, as the tale goes, was both the doing and undoing of my great grandfather, Issac Reed Campbell.

Best Comedy Video
The post that shook the Geneablogging World in 2007

And The iGene Goes to:

The footnoteMaven Cuts A Rug

The dance that almost cost me my marriage . . . Mrs. Samuel Clemens

I humbly accept these awards on behalf of my ancestors, my fellow
GeneaBloggers, and the family history and education for which
we have been privileged to be a small part.

Thank You to the Academy and my ancestors for providing the material!
And Thank You to Jasia for one terrific idea!

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, the clock has run down on the
2007 iGene Awards Gala.

Now it's off to the After Awards parties. I have a lot of GeneaBlogs to visit.

"See You At Next Year's Awards"


Academy of Genealogy and Family History (AGFH)
Founding Member


All photographs and illustrations are in the collection of the author.