Happy Anniversary, 100 Years in America!

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my series of family history blogs.

100 Years in America, Small-leaved Shamrock and A light that shines again are one year old!

It was only a little more than a month ago that 100 Years in America commemorated its 100th post. Now at 112 posts and one year of blogging, I thought I'd share with you some of the highlights of my collection of articles about Croatian and Hungarian heritage and my own personal family history.

Here are my favorites:

• What a trip


• Bumo vidli!


• Just across the river


• From the old country to a new world


• On new countries, new babies and a wedding


• 431 East 16th Street, Manhattan


• Linguistically speaking


• A young American family


• Ellis Island: the untold story


• Why do I trace my family tree?


• What color is your heritage?


• A random thank-you for genealogical kindness


• An attic, suitcases, and a window into a hidden world


• The "isle of hope and tears" revisited


• A little boy, a big ship, and a brand new world


• The love of fine cars: it's in the genes


• To be the quiet little girl at the table once again


• Back and forth across the Kingdom of Hungary


• Crossing borders and language barriers


• If only a church could tell stories


• On babies and trans-Atlantic crossings


• Easter traditions: Decorating eggs and... fighting...


• The view from my corner of the world


• A thousand words and a few pictures


• Maps, maps and more maps


• "Mazes, windings and turnings": a little digression on maps


• "Keepers of the absent": the homes of our ancestors


• Međimurje: Meeting place of rivers and cultures


• Remembering Mother Magdalena: 1860-1957


• On libraries: "the narrower path"


• "The waves' rippling song": South Beach, Staten Island

I would be remiss if I didn't make special mention of my discovery of baby Lajos Tóth. A family member whom I'd never heard of, I found his name listed on a the ship's passenger list at the port of departure in Hamburg. With the help of fellow blogger and family historian Donna Pointkowski, I was able to receive the happy news that baby Lajos had survived the trip across the Altantic and begun a new life in America with his family. You can read his story at Lajos long forgotten: an immigrant baby's story and Update on baby Lajos: his arrival at Ellis Island.

And a few more posts of note:

Inspired last holiday season by another genealogy blogger, I contributed twelve articles about Croatian and Hungarian Christmas customs to Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. What fun it was to share about the many wonderful holiday customs and the ways in which my own family has celebrated the season. One of my favorite posts from that collection was the story entitled A ring, yellow roses & a Flying Cloud. It is a fun story about the courtship of a very special couple (during Christmastime, of course) and the car with which they began their married life.

The Easter season brought a special gift to 100 Years in America from a reader in Croatia in the form of photographs of my ancestral church in Croatia decorated for the most important Church holiday of the year. I also had fun sharing a few other articles for the season:

• Easter traditions: Decorating eggs and... fighting!


• Hungarian Easter Monday weather: showers!

In addition to the Advent carnival, I've enjoyed contributing 100 Years in America articles to a number of editions of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Jasia.

One of my very favorite posts this past year, and one that certainly got much attention and response from others writing about their own family history, was: Where was your family in 1908? Introspective after reading the January 2008 Smithsonian magazine article about the world one-hundred years ago, I asked myself that question and shared it with others via blog. Apparently my question struck a chord with many of you. After reading many of your responses, I compiled a collection of Snapshots of the world back in 1908: an interesting look back at our world one-hundred years ago through the eyes of today's family historians. It was a fun way to start off the year 2008.

As I mentioned over at Happy Anniversary, Small-leaved Shamrock!, I had known that my one year anniversary of blogging was coming, but yesterday in the midst of busy daily activities, it slipped my mind that the one-year mark had arrived. Somehow my inattention to the date seems very appropriate. One of the joys of writing and publishing via blog is just how beautifully that it has allowed me to fit in writing on subjects that I enjoy within the confines of a busy life. Daily life continues to keep up its busy pace around me, yet ideas flow and when I find a quiet moment, I make a short visit to the computer to log my thoughts and to eventually share them with readers like you.

The year has flown, yet somehow I can't imagine life now now without sharing a part of my world and my family history with family, friends and other readers via blog. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience to have this avenue to share information and stories that I have been collecting for many years, and at the same time to find that in the sharing I am inspired to learn more.

I have spent a good amount of time this past year writing about things that are meaningful and interesting to me in the realm of my personal family history. I hope that you'll agree and that you've enjoyed sharing a little bit in the story of my family and my Hungarian and Croatian heritage here at 100 Years in America. If so, please continue the journey along with me as reader as I begin my second year publishing via the web.

Once again as I celebrate my one year blogging anniversary, I send a special thank-you to you, my readers, and particularly to those of you that have taken the time to send comments or emails. Thanks for reading and I look forward to continuing this journey with you for another year.

For more highlights from the world of Lisa's blogs, you might enjoy reading Happy Anniversary, Small-leaved Shamrock! and Happy Anniversary, A light that shines again!