THE 10TH ANNUAL GREAT GENEALOGY POETRY CHALLENGE

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to the 10th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. This year we have posts from familiar faces and some newcomers. The contributions include two original poems, a song, and a humorous poem  All the blogposts are enjoyable and great reads.
Here are this year's Challenge entries



Ann Marie Bryan's 8x great grandmother was Anne Bradstreet, one of the earliest American  poets.Ann Marie tells us about her ancestress and shares a poem written in 1659 "In Reference To Her Children, 23June 1659"  at her blog, Tales of a  Family.



Last year Linda Shufflebean participated in the Challenge for the first time, This year she's back with a post explaining her love of family history and American History in particula and how poems about history are a part of elementary education. So her poem is one familiar to many school children, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Longfellow (as as you know, I am a big fan of Longfellow!)  Read Linda's post  "Tenth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge" on Empty Branches on the Family Tree.



Nancy Messier's ancestor's were from the coal mining town of  Byker - Hill in Northumberland, England. While researching her family she found a reference to a song "Byker Hill" and not only found the lyrics to the song but also a video of it being performed. You can see and hear it at "Byker-Hill for Tenth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge" over at My Ancestors and Me.


Dorene has been a contributor every year to the Challenge. This year's contribution at her Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Ohio is "Poem About Ohio by Nellie Grant". The poem is entitled "Imperium in Imperio" and celebrates the state of Ohio.



Another new contributor this year is Elizabeth Gautreau who has ancestry from Nova Scotia.She found a poem with some great imagery written by Marshall Schacht called "Two Winds On Nova Scotia". The post is "10th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge" and her blog is called This Is Us.


Like many of us, my friend Michael Davies has vivid memories of our grandparents. Michael put his memories into a poem, "Remembering Nanna and Grandad".Then he explains the significance of the images in each line. It's a great read over at Tall Tales of a Family.



Speaking of memories about family life,  the entry from cousin Janice Brown of the Cow Hampshire blog is ""The Old Hearth Stone" by Matthew Harvey" is about the members of the family that gathered each night around the fireplace. You can picture the scene in your imagination as you read the poem in Janice's post  2018: The 10th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge.



At her Bridging the Past blog, Lori Lyn Price shares her poem Virden, New Mexico which she wrote when she was in the eighth grade. Like other poems in this year's challenge it is rich with memories and imagery that paints a picture of a family and a community. She has also added some great photos.



Barbara Poole is another longtime contributor to the Challenge  Like Anne Marie Bryant she is the 8x great grandaughter of colonial poetess Anne Bradstreet and for this year's post at  Life From The Roots  Barbara writes about a book she owns of Bradstreet's poetry. She includes three poems that range from an epitaph for a family member to a love poem about her husband to a poem of giving thanks for her daughter's recovery from illness. You can see them at 10th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge!



Heather Wilkinson Rojo has written many times on her blog Nutfield Genealogy about the Scots Irish settlers of Londonderry, NH. For this year's Challenge she's found a poem about a settler who was captured by the indians but managed to escape.The details are in the poem Jamie Cochran: The Indian Captive, A Poem by Robert Dinsmoor  "The Rustic Bard".



I don't often get to award the Willie Puckerbrush Award for a humorous poem (which is named for an alias the late Terry Thornton used) but this year a newcomer to the Challenge Diane Anderson wins it for a poem written by a small town minister who liked to make "punning remarks". Alfred J. Cotton was his name and his "remarks" about the marriages of  "JOHN C. MOORE AND RUTH DOWDEN, LEVIN S. MOORE AND  MARY ANN DOWDEN." made me grin. read them yourself at My Entry in the Tenth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge at Diane's blog  This Hoosier's Heritage.


I have two entries this tear. The first poem is about a town in Maine where several generations of my
Laughton familylived in the 19th century, and it was written by another of my cousins. The post is called "At Norridgewock" by John Greenleaf Whittier.


My second post is a poem that's perfect for Thanksgiving Day. The English poet Robert Southey imagined how the Pilgrims might have reacted when they saw their new home for the first time.it's at my post "First Landing of the Pilgrims " by Robert Southey.


That concludes this year's Great  Genealogy Poetry Challenge. Please visit the blogs of this year's contributors, read the poems and remember to leave a comment to let them know how much you enjoyed their posts. 

And thanks to all the bloggers for their great posts!