Monday, March 2, 2020

The GeneaBloggers Lifetime Achievement Award

On Friday, 29 February 2020, the GeneaBloggers group (https://geneabloggerstribe.com/) awarded me a GeneaBloggers Lifetime Achievement Award and a Certificate of Honorary Lifetime Membership at the RootsTech 2020 Conference in Salt Lake City.

I am so honored - thank you to Laura Wilkinson Hedgecock, the President of Geneabloggers, the GeneaBloggers Board of Directors, and Pat Richley-Erickson for this distinct honor from my peer group of genealogy blogging colleagues.  My tribe!  The Geneabloggers blog describing this award is at   https://geneabloggerstribe.com/randy-seaver-receives-lifetime-achievement-award/.

At the GeneaBloggers group photograph, DearMYRTLE (Pat Richley-Erickson) made the presentation in the presence of about 30 geneabloggers.  Here is the presentation photograph (courtesy of David Allen Lambert):

A photo of me holding the plaque and certificate was taken a bit later:

This was a BIG surprise for me.  I didn't know there was such an award.  Now I know why Laura reminded me of the geneabloggers photo opportunity time several times on Friday!

When I joined the group for the photograph near the Media Hub, I gravitated to the back of the group.  Pat Richley-Erickson was called upon to say a few words.  I couldn't hear well what was being said because of the background noise - the Expo Hall was busy and buzzing.  Suddenly, all faces turned to me when they asked me to come on down to the front, and I was a bit stunned.  I made my way down to the front of the group, and learned about the award.  Here is the speech that Pat gave about the award:
Welcome GeneaBloggers! We gather for our annual group photo, this time at RootsTech 2020. For those of you watching this recording, the background noise is from the very busy Exhibit Hall. 
We are joined today by GeneaBlogger’s President Laura Hedgecock. I’m DearMYRTLE, and am humbled to speak with you today. 
What began in 2007 as Jasia Smasha’s “Carnival of Genealogy” morphed into the GeneaBloggers group supporting online genealogy writers. 
In Jan 2008, Kathryn Doyle and LindaRae Palmer (footnoteMaven) wanted to produce a style guide for the term “GeneaBloggers” because at the time various genealogy bloggers were referring to the fledgling organization as genea-bloggers, GeneBloggers, genealogyBloggers, etc. This was to avoid confusion and was similar to the AP style guide for journalists.
All this was long before any type of bloggers in general began to wield power. 
GeneaBloggers itself is a volunteer organization created by a core group of bloggers dedicated to advancing those who blogged genealogy. Jasia Smasha, Kathryn Doyle, LindaRae Palmer (footnoteMaven), Miriam Robbins, Randy Seaver, and Terry Thornton aka The Graveyard Rabbit (may he Rest In Peace) were part of that core group. 
The expressed purpose of GeneaBloggers is to:
  • support genealogy bloggers including content-providers on a variety of platforms
  • share information on resources
GeneaBloggers has emerged as a vibrant community of content providers supporting one another with expertise and encouragement as we share our family histories. Our members provide a wide variety of genealogy content across numerous only platforms including blogging, vlogging, podcasting, and employing nearly all forms of social media.
Today  we’d like to honor one of those original “founders” of GeneaBloggers.
At that point, Randy Seaver was asked to step forward, as Pat continued with his many, many blogging accomplishments through his Genea-Musings blog.
If you’re wondering how many posts Randy has posted over the years, we were too.  The answer:  Over 13,000.
In addition to prolific blogging and supporting other bloggers, Randy:
  • reports industry news as a recognized influencer; he receives press releases from the major players in the genealogy vertical; and he is invited to private consultations with CEOs of genealogy companies.
  • keeps track of database changes at the big 4: Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, FindMyPast and MyHeritage.
  • deciphers old handwritten documents “Amanuensis Mondays.”
  • transcribes “Seaver Family in the news” in his “Treasure Chest” Tuesdays & Thursdays posts.
  • spotlights family photos in his “(Not So) Wordless Wednesday” posts.
  • composes ancestral profiles summarizing his research findings and is equally adept at describing emerging technology that may prove useful to genealogists.
  • shares his experience with RootsMagic genealogy management software via step-by-step posts.
  • explains the finer points of using a website.
  • encourages his fellow genealogy bloggers through his “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” writing prompts in addition to his weekly “Best of the Genea-Blogs” post.
  • During RootsTech and other genealogy conferences RANDY creates a centralized “Compendium …” of all other content providers’ posts about the event.
They even asked me to say a few words and I hope that I said "thank you" in the wake of being praised so highly.  I don't know that I said anything noteworthy, other than "this is my tribe!"

There may be video of this event coming from FamilySearch.  I will post it if and when they provide it.

Here is the geneabloggers photograph at this event (courtesy of Miles Meyer):

Thank you so much to my genealogy colleagues for honoring me with this award, and to those who have commented on Facebook and in person.  It is wonderful to be honored by my peer group - my tribe!

However, I am not done yet!!!  Geneablogging will continue - I have lots more to share and find out about my ancestors.  It is an endless game of catch and catch some more.

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The URL for this post is:  
https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/03/the-geneabloggers-lifetime-achievement.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

Linda Stufflebean said...

Randy, Your tribe greatly appreciates all that you contribute to both genealogy and the blogging world every day.I'm sorry I wasn't at RT this year and missed your award presentation, but Geneabloggers chose the absolutely right person to honor this year.It's a well deserved honor.Congratulations!

Seeds to Tree said...

Congratulations Randy, much deserved!

Unknown said...

Well done ... congratulations.

Jen A said...

Well deserved! You have taught me so much over the years.

J. Paul Hawthorne said...

Congratulations, Randy!!! You definitely deserve this long-overdue award. You are the MOST consistent Blogger I know! You rock!

Unknown said...

Congratulations! It couldn't have happened to a nicer person who is always so patient and helpful. Annick H.

Diane Gould Hall said...

Congratulations Randy! This is so well deserved. You are the blogging guru. To be so consistent throughout the years is truly amazing. I am honored to know you. Glad we live in the same county and belong to the same genealogy society. Aren’t I fortunate?
Thanks for being an inspiration to all of us.