Mel Brooks Says Uncle

When Mel Brooks was presented with an Ellis Island Family Heritage Award last week, a video clip was played to commemorate his father's arrival in America.

It was a moving tribute, with old family photos shown while "That's Entertainment" played.

One problem.

"That photo was not of my father," Brooks said after taking the stage. "That was my great-uncle." He went on to say that while his uncle was a good-looking man who "wore a nice hat," as seen in the snapshot, his father, Max Kaminsky, was better looking. [Link]

Well, He Did Write the History of the World

The 2008 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards will be handed out tomorrow morning. Once again, I've been passed over. Apparently you have to have accomplished something worthwhile in your life to even be considered.

The 2008 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards Honorees:

LITERATURE
Mary Higgins Clark — The Bronx-born bestselling suspense writer has sold over 85 million books in the U.S. alone and credits her Irish heritage for her storytelling talent. Mrs. Higgins Clark’s newest novel is “Where Are You Now?”. Her father came from Ireland in 1906.


BUSINESS
The Forbes Family — “Forbes,” the oldest of the nation’s major business magazines, was founded in 1917 by Scottish immigrant B.C. Forbes, who first arrived in America in 1904. B.C.’s descendants continue to manage Forbes Media Inc., a privately held company which publishes “Forbes” in eight foreign languages, reaching five million readers worldwide.


EDUCATION
Donna E. Shalala — President, University of Miami, Dr. Shalala has more than 25 years of experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher and administrator. Under President Clinton, she served eight years as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history. Her paternal grandfather came from Lebanon in 1900.

ENTERTAINMENT
Mel Brooks — Director, producer, writer and actor, Mel Brooks has created many comedy film classics as well as the popular television show “Get Smart.” His latest project is “The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein” currently playing on Broadway. His father emigrated from Austria as a child in 1896.

They Like You, They Really Like You!

Congrats to RootsTelevision.com for winning four Telly Awards. That's four more than Susan Lucci has ever won.

RootsTelevision.com, an online channel dedicated to all aspects of genealogy and family history, has been recognized in the 29th Annual Telly Awards for four of its original productions. Selected from more than 14,000 shows were “DNA Stories: A Tale of Two Fathers” (documentary), “Heir Jordan: Extreme Genealogy” (entertainment), “Roots Books: Psychic Roots” (talk show), and “Flat Stanley’s Family Tree” (children’s audience).

“We’re delighted,” said RootsTelevision.com co-founder, Marcy Brown. “To receive this kind of recognition during our first year of existence is remarkable, and winning in four different categories is even more astonishing. We take this as an indication that our decision to pioneer online programming for the substantial but neglected niche of millions of genealogists was a risk worth taking.”

It's an Honor Just to Be Overlooked

Family Tree Magazine has announced its five finalists for Best Family Web Site, and this blog was inexplicably omitted. Despite this oversight, the five listed are worth a visit. You can vote for your favorite through Feb. 13.

As for me, I'll be weeping quietly in a dark corner.

The 2006 Genealogue Awards

It's time to hand out the Genealogue Awards again. For those of you who have been looking forward to this post all year, I would recommend electric-shock therapy.

2006 was a census year in many countries, and not everyone was forthcoming. Canadian enumerators showed admirable persistence, and one Nigerian census taker even tied the knot to elicit results, but the winner for Most Dedicated Census Taker is Susan Dyck, who had the foresight not to use public transportation.

There was only one entrant for Best Census Avoidance Technique. Graeme Cairns reminded us that cryogenically frozen ancestors may not have been counted by census takers.

In the category of Most Unlikely Couple, we have a tie. I can't decide whether it's more noteworthy to marry a porpoise for love, or a goat for sex.

The award for Most Inappropriate Cemetery Behavior goes to Charles Rose, whose performance exhibited far more enthusiasm than that of the small-bladdered James Scott.

The award for Family Heirloom I'd Least Like to Eat goes to the Soar family's Medieval bread. Close behind was the 50-year-old tin of chicken Les and Beryl Lailey ate on their wedding anniversary. Ty Thomson's 38-year-old ice cream parfaits were disqualified, because I really would like to eat them.

I consider myself a devoted researcher, but I'm not in the same league as the three nominees for Most Extreme Genealogist. Lottie Smalls almost earned herself a restraining order, and Rudyard Edick crawled under a church to find an ancestor's grave. But the winner is Jennie De Bout, who traveled 2,300 miles—mostly on foot—to retrieve a copy of her birth certificate, only to find that the Probate Court didn't have it on file.

The co-winners for Most Unwelcome Discovery are complete opposites. One found that her ancestor cared too little for animals; the other found that her ancestor cared too much.

The Bing Crosby Parenting Award goes to Giuseppe Gallo, whose children must have loved him as much as Mona Vanni's children loved her.

The winner for Most Sensible Grave Arrangement is St. Rose Cemetery, where "The way you drop is the way you flop."

The Worst Epitaph Award goes to Mr. Anderson, Provost of Dundee. Hallelujah, Hallelujee!

Finally, the prize for Best Genealogical Advice is posthumously awarded to Henry H. Crapo, who described genealogy as a "deplorable ... expenditure of vitality." As one who has spent as much time genealogizing as sleeping in the year past, I couldn't agree more.

Genealogy Goes to the Oscars

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

This Sunday's Academy Awards telecast will have something for everyone—so long as everyone is a genealogist.

According to Academy President Sid Ganis, the theme of this year's show will be "Genealogy on Film," highlighting great genealogical moments in cinematic history.

"Who can forget," says Ganis, "Robert De Niro's anger in Taxi Driver when he realizes that Cybill Shepherd isn't interested in reading microfilm with him? Or Judy Garland's delight when she returns from Oz and finds her subscription to the Kansas Genealogy Journal has been renewed?"

The theme will extend to that part of the broadcast in which the names and faces of recently departed Academy members are shown to the audience. This year, each name will be accompanied by a five-generation pedigree of the deceased, read aloud by veteran actor Ernest Borgnine.

Ganis concedes that the show could run long, but says the director is "hoping to keep it under ten hours."

The monologue of Oscars host Jon Stewart will be remembered for years to come, Ganis assures us: "He was born a Leibowitz, of course, so he has a ton of material to work with. There's nothing not funny about Jewish family history."

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry, Oscars, Academy Awards]

The 2005 Genealogue Awards

The time has come to honor the best Genealogue news articles of 2005 (and by "best" I mean the best I could round up in the last fifteen minutes).

The award for Worst Family Reunion Ever goes to . . . "Worst Family Reunion Ever." The runner-up is "The Next Best Thing," which describes a planned reunion of people whose ancestors had lunch with Abraham Lincoln.

The coveted Double Entendre of the Year Award goes to "Archivist Finds Faithful Cock in Cornwall," with a second-place finish by "The French Keep Track of Their Seamen."

In the category of Worst Location for a Graveyard, the winner is "Cemetery in Middle of Road Perhaps a Bad Idea." Runner-up: Six Feet Under the Sunoco Station.

Winner of the I Hope This Doesn't Catch On Award is "A New Way to Publish Your Family History."

There was a tie in the voting for Dumbest Desecrater: "Criminal Geniuses" and "Grave Desecration Taken to New Low." Runner-up: "Just Say No."

There was one clear winner for Worst Last Request: "Better Late than Never . . . I Guess."

The Easiest Pun Award goes to "New Orleans Long Plagued by Luters."

The Weirdest Cause of Death was difficult to decide, but the award goes to "The Dangers of Cold Water." Other contenders: "Is Death Contagious?" and "Cause of Death: Acute Henpecking."

The award for Most Needlessly Topical Title goes to "Bodies Dug Up in Front of White House; Karl Rove Not a Suspect."

The NSFW Award goes to "Rasputin Remembered and Dis-membered."

There were two rivals for the Strangest Japanese Census Article Award. The winner was "Census Taker Takes Leave of His Census," which barely nudged out the follow-up story, "The Catchiest Census Jingle Ever."

Best posts in the Cosmogenealogy category are "Astro-Genealogical Interference" and "Space Cadet Approves of Astrodome's Use as Shelter."

The winner of the Dysfunctional Family Award is "Family Honors Relative Out of Spite." In second place is "Man Prefers Deportation to Marriage." A third nominee — "Nothing Says 'I Love You' Like a Homemade Casket" — was disqualified when the family depicted proved to be odd, but not dysfunctional.

Finally, in the category of Cemetery Mishaps the winner is "Belgian Woman Starts Out Drunk, Ends Up Stoned." Running a close second is "Next Time, Use the Gate," in which a woman discovers what those spiky things on cemetery fences are for.

tags: genealogy, family history, family tree

Genealogue News Flash: Nobel Prize for Genealogy Awarded

A Genealogue News Flash [What's That?]

An elderly man from rural New England has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Genealogy. Harley Millett received the news from Stockholm early Tuesday morning at his home in Anson, Maine.

"I tell you, I was surprised," Millett told The Genealogue. "Never even knew I was entered in a contest. Never knew there was a contest."

Millett is credited with advancing the study of genealogy through a practice that has become known as "Ancestor Hoarding," or "The Millett Method." It began when Millett became interested in his family's history, soon after his retirement in 1983.

"Problem was, my mother's people were all buried up to Aroostook County, and my father's folks are right here in town," Millett explained. "I figured I'd just as soon visit 'em all at once as one at a time."

Millett purchased a large piece of land in Anson to accommodate his relatives, drew a large family tree on the ground with orange spray paint, and started digging up, transporting, and reinterring the remains of his forebears, each in the appropriate spot.

"There's my folks over near the fence," Millett said, proudly pointing out the position of each grave. "My grandparents are next, then their folks. Makes it wicked easy to keep track of your lines, this way."

In all, Millett has collected 73 of his direct ancestors in this Maine field. At age 87, he is still looking for more. And he is hoping the Nobel Prize comes with a cash award.

"I've got a line on a great-great-great-grandmother down in Watertown, Mass. I sure could use a couple hundred bucks to rent a U-Haul."

Genealogue News Flash: Ancestry.com Wins an Emmy

A Genealogue News Flash [What's That?]

The most surprising winner at Sunday night's 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was Ancestry.com—a genealogy company based in Provo, Utah. The first-time nominee walked off with the Emmy for Best Comedic Infomercial, beating out pre-show favorite Kevin Trudeau of "Natural Cures" fame.

The company's entry featured a woman tracing her lineage back 400 years, finding family pictures, and downloading supporting documentation from the Ancestry.com website—all without adequate preparation, and all within thirty minutes of signing up.

Said fellow Emmy-winner Felicity Huffman, "It was the acting that made it seem believable. I don't understand why ... whoever it was ... wasn't nominated for Best Actress."