THE CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY AND ME AFTER 83

I started West in New England on 1/23/2007 after having discovered the
geneablogs of Chris Dunham, Tim Abbot, J.J. Bell and Randy Seavers. But it
was a link on Randy’s Genea-musings blog to Jasia’s Carnival of Genealogy
that led me to what turned out to be the biggest step in becoming a better
blog writer.

My first COG contribution was “AGGIE” in the 03/17/07 20th edition of the
Carnival. I’d written it back in February but it wasn’t until it appeared as part
of the Carnival that I had comments on it. (That’s been the best thing about
the COG for me, the feedback. Statscounters can tell you if anyone’s looked
at your site but comments tell you if they actually read what you wrote.)
I was hooked. I’ve tried to contribute to as many editions as I can ever since,
only missing three for the rest of 2007 ( #30,#32 and #35) and one in 2008
(#60). Because of computer problems I’ve already missed three this year
(#72, #74 and #77) but I’m hoping not to miss any more! Along the way I ’ve
had the honor of hosting two editions, #50 on Family Pets and #69 What If?:
Rewriting History. That gave me a greater appreciation for the amount of
wor k that Jasia has put into the CoG!

My Top Five Favorite Posts for the CoG(in chronological order):
ORPHA in CoG #33
A SMALL FAMILY DINNER in CoG# 41
WITNESS TO HISTORY in CoG#52
DANCING MAGGIE in CoG# 58
MR.WEST GOES TO BOSTON in CoG#69

The other great thing about the CoG has been all the connections that have
been made among geneabloggers that began through it. Most of the blogs in
the links column on the right side of this page are I first encountered through
the Carnival of Genealogy and I’m sure many other of my fellow geneabloggers
can make similar statements. This why in my opinion the importance of the
CoG cannot be overstated, because I firmly believe that the greater Geneablogger
Community as it is today would not exist if not for the connections that Jasia
and the CoG had already fostered.

Thank you, Jasia!


I’ve taken part in 55 Carnival of Genealogy editions. This is my number 56, and
I hope there will be many, many more CoG’s for me to take part in!