Carnival of Genealogy, 54th Edition

Welcome to the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy! I am delighted to host the COG for the very first time here at What’s Past is Prologue. This edition’s theme is The Family Language – and what a wonderful variety of languages we all have.  And I don’t mean the “usual” languages, but those certain special words used within families that make others say, “What?”

To tour our virtual Tower of Babble, there is no interpreter required.  But I can guarantee that you’re sure to get a laugh when you read about one another’s family languages – especially if you thought your family had some odd terms!

Starting us off on our tour is Wendy Littrell from All My Branches Genealogy with What a Bunch of Hooey!.  I’m sure that your Mom used some of Wendy’s mom’s “Mom-isms” too!  And that’s not a bunch of hooey, either.

Debra Osborne Spindle presents Family Language posted at All My Ancestors.  She has quite an assortment of interesting words and phrases from both her father and her grandfather.  Don’t be a Ned, and check it out.

Miriam Robbins Midkiff presents Our Family Language at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors.   From Miriam you’ll learn about some interesting Alaskan expressions – and that’s no balderdash, either.

Oh, Yee Gods!  What in Sam Hill was Ruth Stephens‘ grandmother talking about?  Read more as Ruth presents Oh, Yee Gods! posted at Bluebonnet Country Genealogy.

Read an assortment of family language gathered from Canada, the military, and even small children’s mis-pronunciations at M. Diane Rogers‘ Why Do You Say That, Grandma D, or, The Family Language – Carnival of Genealogy – 54th Edition posted at CanadaGenealogy, or, ‘Jane’s Your Aunt’.

Jasia presents There Never Was A Sweeter Word posted at Creative Gene.   Wow, I sure am hungry now after reading Jasia’s post, no matter what you call it in your family!

Terry Snyder, otherwise known as “Tee Tee Brown” presents What’s in a Name? posted at Desktop Genealogist.  You won’t believe how many nicknames the Desktop Genealogist has had!

Thomas MacEntee from Destination: Austin Family brings us two posts.  First, read about some New Yorkisms at Destination:Austin Family: New Yorkisms.   Some of these New Yorkisms are familiar to us Southerners in Philadelphia!  Thomas adds another delightful look at family language with some Mom-isms.   Would it kill you to read both posts?

Susan J. Edminster presents Pit and Siz posted at Echo Hill Ancestors Weblog.  Susan shares a wonderful remembrance of her brother, Bob, who died too young.  Bob had some great expressions and nicknames for the family – and illustrations, too!

Elyse presents The Funny Names, Words and Phrases of My Family posted at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog. Wow – I’d definitely need a dictionary over at Booter’s house!

footnoteMaven presents Home To The Ear posted at footnoteMaven.   Learn about the side effects of losing the family language in this hilarious yet heartfelt lament.

Craig Manson presents Carnival of Genealogy: The Language of Families posted at GeneaBlogie.  From The World’s Smartest Sister’s Bubbas, we learn about the mix of expressions and “linguistic oddities” in his family.

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings offers a look at San Diego Slanguage.  The man from Nasty City has some interesting “San Diego-isms” that would certainly come in handy if you’re ever in his neck of the woods.

Midge Frazel‘s family comes from Scotland and England, so Americans ought to be able to understand them, right?  Midge Frazel presents Right You Are! posted at Granite in My Blood.

Terry, er…Bill?  No wait! Teb?!  Let’s just say that Mr. Thornton presents Thwarted by Thweet Nicknames posted at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi.  If the first paragraph doesn’t pull you right in, I don’t know what will.  Not all nicknames are welcome in Terry’s family!

Janet Iles presents Carnival of Genealogy 54th edition – Family Language posted at Janet the researcher.  If you were invited to Janet’s house for dinner, you’d get to enjoy a nice big plate of … slop?  You’ll have to read her funny post to find out exactly what she means!

Becky Wiseman presents Say What? posted at kinexxions.  Learn about some sayings that are cute and funny…just not to Becky’s nephew.

Elizabeth O’Neal presents Little Bytes of Life: Who Needs Ruby Slippers When You’ve Got Strawberries? posted at Little Bytes of Life.  Drop by for some funny musings on everything from children learning language for the fist time to Valspeak and other California-isms!

Robert Lord presents Lord and Lady: This one’s for “Dexter” posted at Lord and Lady.  Robert’s grandfather had an unusual good luck charm and a mysterious saying, “This one’s for Dexter.”  But does it involve an unsolved murder mystery?

Lisa from 100 Years in America presents The Hungarian Language and the “Poetry” of My Childhood.  In this thoughtful post, Lisa remembers the soundtrack of her childhood as provided by her Hungarian-Croatian grandmother.

Val M. presents The “Farmer” posted at One Point in Time.  Can a nickname lead you to dig deeper into your research?  Was “the Farmer” really a farmer?

Amanda Erickson presents Pittsburghese? posted at Random Ramblings.  Amanda presents quite a few interesting sayings from out west (Pittsburgh, that is!).

Lori Thornton presents Southern English posted at Smoky Mountain Family Historian.  Y’all need to tote yourself on over to Smoky Mountain for another lesson in Southern English.

Stephen J. Danko presents Polish Influences in my Family?s Language posted at Steve’s Genealogy Blog. Steve, who I will forever now think of as Staś, remembers the Polish influence is his family.  Hey, didn’t everyone have gołąbki and kapusta?

John Newmark presents A Family Language posted at Transylvanian Dutch.  John thought he had some great insight into his family’s use of nicknames, but he’s stumped by a rather unique expression found in a letter.  Exactly who is it that did what?

Sheri Bush presents The Family Language or The Mason/Dixon Line Runs Down The Middle of Our Table posted at TwigTalk.  Sheri is fluent in two languages!  North and South…

Now we’ll travel down the road a piece to Bill West‘s West in New England as he presents West in New England: DOWN THE ROAD A PIECE TO THE FORTRESS!.

Find out some unique Texas Talk native to David Bowles family in Talkin’ Texan posted at Writing the Westward Sagas.

Finally, the offering from yours truly, Donna Pointkouski, here at What’s Past is Prologue is presented in Don’t Be a What? I wrote about my grandmother’s influence on my language!

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy – thanks so much for attending!  I hope you enjoyed learning about everyone’s family languages as much as I did.  Thanks, Jasia, for the opportunity to host!  And special thanks to footnoteMaven for the cool poster!

Call for submissions! With Labor Day and the end of summer right around the corner it’s time to think about going back to school. So, the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Show and Tell! Remember that fun little exercise you used to do in your grade school days? Here’s your chance to do it again 🙂 Show us and tell us about an heirloom, a special photo, a valuable document, or a significant person that is a very special part of your family history. Don’t be shy now, show us what you’ve got! This is all about bragging rights so don’t hesitate to make the rest of us green with envy! This is your chance to brag, brag, brag, without seeming like a braggart (you can’t be a braggart when you’re merely following directions ;-)… so show and tell!

This next edition will be hosted by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. The deadline for submissions will be September 1st.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. See ya next time!