Saturday, February 14, 2009

The ONvelope, Please!

The 66th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is the annual iGene Awards! This is where I get to choose my best posts in the following categories of Best Documentary, Best Biography, Best Comedy, Best Screen Play and Best Picture.

I'll start with the Best Documentary. I chose an article I posted in early November that recognized not one of my family, but a friend of mine's family. In "A New Branch Sprouted" I announced the proclamation of Nan Qi Qing of Guandong Province, China as the daughter of Joe and Donna of Chandler Arizona. I chose this article because the announcement was the culmination of almost three years of waiting for these parents. Today I'm pleased to announce that Lauren Elizabeth has been home almost one month, and though the first few days with Joe and Donna in China were incredibly rough for her, she is already a blossoming 22 month old, beautiful toddler.

Best Biography: This was by and far the easiest choice: A Tribute To Women, posted on 09 March 2008 in honor of National Women's History Month. This post not only was my favorite post honoring my father's oldest sister, Marianne, who had Down Syndrome, it apparently was a favorite of a new follower, the blog of the Disability Studies Program at Temple University. A poster there had found Marianne's post and passed it on to an Ohio State professor who in turn asked for permission to reprint Marianne's photo in an upcoming online encyclopedia on the History of Disability in America for Facts On File. Marianne is most deserving of the honor. In fact, the encyclopedia is due for release next month...

Best Comedy: Blog Takeover, which featured Izzie posting his own ancestry. "Who-Cuddn't Luv-a-that FACE?"

Best Screenplay: "So Many Ancestors". It would be so cool to see a film on my meeting the four ancestors I'd chosen for the COG of January 28, 2008. I would get Janeane Garofalo to portray me. I loved her in The Truth About Cats and Dogs. She'd have to dye her hair a bit lighter though. For Margaret Doyle I'd have Helen Hunt. Helen's character in Castaway knew what it's like to literally lose a loved one, and so I'd want her to play Margaret (who is nowhere to be found in the 1880 U.S. Census) as a chance to turn the tables and portray the one that GOT lost. Along those same lines, I'd choose William Petersen of CSI to portray my great-grandfather James O'Rourke. Since William's character Gil is used to solving mysteries, perhaps he'd be good as the mysterious one instead, and the culmination of his performance would be the revelation of who James' parents were since I can't figure it out! Besides, Ann Donahue is one of the creators of CSI. Maybe she'll turn out to be connected through my maternal Donahue line. For my great-grandmother Mary Griffin, I'd get Betty White simply because she cracks me up. Finally, for my paternal great-grandmother (on my dad's maternal side) I'd ask Camryn Mannheim. I think she's a great actress, and she kind of has Justina's smirky grin :).
(photo of Camryn courtesy of http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005179/)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: Best Picture.

Well, what did you expect? I couldn't come up with just one photograph for footnoteMaven's 4th edition of Smile for the Camera. Did you expect me to come up with just one for the iGene Awards?

Though if I was forced to I would probably choose the photo I use for this blog's header, since it is probably the oldest photograph I have of the Doyle family (Thanks, Mike for sending it to me!).

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