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This month’s word prompt for the 20th Edition of the Smile For The Camera Carnival is “Valentine.”

Love is in the air, so celebrate with Smile by sharing a photograph of a Valentine; be that person or paper. The interpretation of Valentine is yours. Admission is free with every photograph!

This special valentine is part of the California Genealogical Society’s manuscript collection. Linda Darby shared it with me and it was so adorable I snapped a couple of photographs. Now I have the perfect opportunity to share them.

This valentine is neither paper nor person – it is actually a piece of fabric – muslin, I believe – and seems to have been created to commemorate a GRIFFIN family event.

It is a list of family names and the upper right corner includes the following:

March Membership Meeting with Mary Mettler
Saturday, March 13, 2010
1:00 p.m.
California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

The Successful Research Trip: Lessons Learned on the Road

Many of you will recognize Mary’s name from her Tuesday Tales – the series of blog articles she wrote in 2008 during her three-month genealogical trek across country. Mary has also made several shorter research trips so her expertise is measured in time and miles.


Mary will tell us about taking research trips to our ancestors’ locales, especially small and mid-sized places. She has made seven such trips from as short as one week to that once-in-a-lifetime journey. She will discuss preparation, tools to take, unique sources, tips/tricks and possible pitfalls.

Please note that a short membership meeting starts promptly at 1:00 p.m. Mary’s talk follows immediately after. Seating is limited so please arrive early. Meetings are open to everyone but non-members pay a $5.00 users fee to enter the library. (Or come and become a member!)

Announcing the first edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies!

Jasia of Creative Gene generously allowed me to introduce this idea back in October with the 82nd edition of the COG, Breaking Into Society. In case you are new to the concept, the Carnival of Genealogy (COG) is a bimonthly blog event invented by Jasia in 2006. Individual genealogy bloggers write about an assigned topic and post the articles on their blogs. Each carnival edition has a host who gathers the submissions and publishes a round-up of links to the articles.

Regular readers know I am a firm believer in genealogical society membership and that this blog has been a wonderful way to showcase the good work of the dedicated volunteers at the California Genealogical Society. It is my hope that a carnival devoted exclusively to writing about societies will broaden awareness of what a great resource a society can be and provide a venue for gen-blogging groups to share ideas and perhaps solve problems.

Society blogs are becoming more commonplace – Thomas MacEntee has 37 Genealogy Society blogs listed on Geneabloggers and Chris Dunham’s Genealogy Blog Finder now lists 85 Association and Society blogs. But this is a drop in the bucket when compared to the 500 societies represented by the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS). From their website:

FGS links the genealogical community by helping genealogical societies strengthen and grow. To do this, FGS publishes FORUM magazine, filled with articles pertaining to society management and genealogical news. FGS also publishes an extensive series of Society Strategy Papers, covering topics about effectively operating a genealogical society.

FGS also links the genealogical community through its annual conference — four days of excellent lectures, including one full day devoted to society management topics.

I think that a blog carnival can create a gen-society subset within the larger, existing geneablogger community. Although they don’t always write about it, many gen-bloggers are active members and officers of their local societies and hold membership in distant societies where their forebears lived. Here are some great articles I’ve noticed in the past few months that are worthwhile reading for anyone involved in the running of a society:

Genealogy Societies by Karen

Promoting Genealogical Societies by Tina Sansone

Blog Presentation at my Society Meeting by Granny Pam

Should Your Genealogy Society Have a Blog? by Amy Coffin

Amy Coffin’s 25 Great Topics for Genealogical Society Blogs

And now for a few specifics. For the first few months I will plan to host the Carnival of Genealogical Societies here at the CGSL blog but my intention is that hosting will rotate to other gen-society blogs. However, any individual blogger is welcome to write an article for the carnival and submit it – as long as it is on topic. The GenSo Carnival will run every other month with entries due on the 7th. I look forward to receiving your entries by March 7, 2010 and I will publish the first edition on March 10, 2010. Even if you’ve never participated in a blog carnival before, please consider joining us. I welcome your feedback about this new venture.

Call for Submissions! The topic for this inaugural edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies is: Doin’ Things Right! Shine a spotlight on a specific program, project, or publication at a genealogical society and tell us why it worked. Tell an anecdote about how you benefited from a particular genealogical society service. Share a success story and be specific! The deadline for submissions is March 7, 2010.

Please do indicate in your article that you are writing for the First Edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies. Submit your blog article using the the submission form provided by Blog Carnival. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any article you plan to submit and/or write a brief introduction to your articles in the “remarks” section of the form.

See you at the Carnival!