Illuminating Blogger Award

This blog has been a little neglected lately, mainly due to work pressures.  I’ve been stressing about it a bit, and have had a really bad week for many reasons.   It seems that everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong over the past couple of weeks.  But what a surprise it was to my day when I saw that one of my favourite bloggers, Kerryn from AncestorChasing has given me an Illuminating Blogger Award.

Kerryn, this news brightened, my day, my week and my month. I’m not a confident writer at all, and actually struggle with understanding why readers out there would want to read my blog. When I first started blogging, I had very selfish motives. Mainly to put information out there, in the hope of finding researchers  who might be also studying my family lines. The other  motive was that hopefully practice would improve my writing. .  I’m very keen to get my book about the Waters Family written, and was very much aware that to do this I would need to make big improvements to my writing. So with the encouragement of my daughter I decided to dive head first into blogging.

Blogging has to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.  I have met many elusive and unknown cousins and swapped notes with countess researchers with an interest in my families. Most rewarding for me has been the other bloggers who I’ve met through blogging, some who have stumbled across my blog, and others who’s blogs called out to me. Reading each others blogs, it has been a pleasure to get to know the bloggers and their ancestors. I’ve found genealogy bloggers to be very generous with their time and willing to give encouragement to newbies on the scene.

One thing that most readers of this blog wouldn’t know about me is that I’m a fitness fanatic. I love cycling, trail running and bushwalking with my dogs, boxing and gym. If I’m not working or researching my family history or blogging, I will usually be found doing something fitness related.  Here’s my, rather neglected at times, fitness blog Next Phase In Fitness.

One of my tasks as holder of the Illuminating Blogger Award is to nominate 6 Blogs for this award.

Jill Ball at Geniaus is the person who inspired me, with her generous encouragement and support,  to keep at it, when I first started blogging.  I have really enjoyed joining in with her geneamemes which I found inspired me to want to broaden my knowledge of all things genealogy. Jill always keeps up with the latest technology, and I rely on her to keep me up to date.

I think Merron  at Western District Families and I started blogging at about the same. I find her blog which focuses on the Western  District of Victoria very interesting, especially the obituaries she regularly posts. I have no connection to her area, but Merron makes me wish that I did when I see all the information about the area and it’s families that is shared on her blog.

I first came across Kerryn at AncestorChasing on Twitter when I noticed we shared a family name. On reading her blog I found we were from the same home town. I enjoy reading about Kerryn’s ancestors and her family today. I’m also enjoying her contributions to the Gould Genealogy Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge.

Lynn Palermo at The Armchair Genealogist is a fantastic resource for writers of family history. She particular is a great supporter of beginning writers. In February I did her Family History Writing Challenge. It was hard work due to my time constraints but it really gave me focus and made me realise that I didn’t need huge chunks of time to be able to complete the writing that I’ve been putting off for years. As a result my book is well on the way.

Dance Skeletons gives me a good laugh with almost every blog post.  I love her sense of humour. My only regret is that I don’t get to interact with her on twitter and through her blog, as often as I’d like. She also shares useful genealogy links and gives a pointer to some great resources.

I also love to read Family history across the seas by Cassmob.  We don’t share any common areas in our genealogy research but I enjoy reading her posts and love the way she writes. This blog also contains many useful links.

If you’ve been nominated and choose to accept my nomination … the rules of the award are straightforward:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).