The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors is proud to announce the winners of the Excellence-in-Writing Competition. All entries were exceptional this year.

Category 1 – Columns

  • 1st Place – Elaine Thomas: “For the Love of Dinah”
  • 2nd Place – Carolyn Schott: “Welcome Back to Osthofen”
  • 3rd Place – Maureen Wlodarczyk: “More Than (Immediately) Meets the Eye”
  • HM – Valerie LaRobardier: “Do You Have an ‘Indian Princess’?”

Category 2 – Articles

  • 1st Place – Martin Fischer: “How the Gogolinsky Family of Warsaw Became the Barney Family of St. Louis, Missouri”
  • 2nd Place – Joseph F. Martin: “Apolonia Lewicka and the Priest”
  • 3rd Place – Mari Margaret McLean, PhD: “Unintended Family History: Thomas Scholfield’s Letter to His Brother”
  • HM – Fred Delcomyn: “A Danish Lad in America”
  • HM – Karen Brattesani: “A Soldier’s Stories of World War II as Told to his Daughter”
  • HM – Sherri Panchaud Onorati: “Lucky to Be Here”

Category 3 – Newsletters

  • 1st Place – Michelle D. Novak: Genealogical Society of Bergen County, NJ’s The Archivist
  • 2nd Place – Patricia Mansfield Phelan: Newsletter of the Irish Family History Forum

Category 4 – Unpublished Material, Unpublished Authors

  • 1st Place – Joan F. Vitale: “The Messenger”
  • 2nd Place – Bonnie Dodge: “Getting to Know Grandmother, A Step Back in Time”
  • 3rd Place – Robbin M. Smith: “I Have an Aunt Alice?”
  • HM – Linda D. Fritz-Langston: “Grandpa & His Puzzle”

Category 5 – Unpublished Material – Published Authors

  • 1st Place – Dave Strausfeld: “Gus Cloepfil and his Migration Westward”
  • 2nd Place – Wevonneda Minis: “DNA Decision”
  • 3rd Place – Elaine Thomas: “Boyhood Tales from the Great Depression”
  • HM – Wendy Wilson Spooner, Lic . G, LCoT: “The Relevance of Genetic Knowledge to Genealogical Research
  • HM – Andrea Butler Ramsey: “The Nickel Man”
  • HM – Emilee Marks: “The Tale of Two Wilhelmina Gogollas”

Category 6 – Poetry & Song

  • 1st Place – Kavya Srikanth: “An Ode to Time Lost”
  • 2nd Place – Lori Lyn Price: “Virden, New Mexico”
  • 3rd Place – John Newmark: “Cause of Death”
  • HM – Anthony Proctor – “The Great Wave”

Congratulations to all the winners!