Root Cellar is announcing a new writing contest. The 2012 Root Cellar Family History Writing Contest is open to the public, and you need not be a member of Root Cellar to enter. Root Cellar will accept factual articles about family or local history, character sketches, or memoirs. Submissions should relate the experiences of a family or individuals, revealing their character and personality. The best entries will display the human drama and historical or social situation of the subjects.
The subject matter of the entries is to be family history or local-history stories, memoirs, or character sketches. Entries should be between 500 and 2,000 words in length. How-to articles or articles about the research process would not be acceptable for this contest.
Your articles do not have to relate to Northern California and/or the Sacramento area. We welcome stories that concern any aspect of family or local history from anywhere and from any era. We believe that, as family historians, we’re all in this together!
All research or other genealogical sources, including letters and diaries, must be supported by appropriate endnote citations. For a guide to citation style, see
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Second Edition, by Elizabeth Shown Mills.
All entries must be received by August 1, 2012. Finalists and other prize-winners will be notified by email about October 1, 2012. The entire list of winners will be posted shortly after October 1, 2012, on the Root Cellar website (
http://www.rootcellar.org/) and published in the Root Cellar’s publication, Preserves.
By entering this contest, submitters grant Root Cellar – Sacramento Genealogical Society permission to print their entry 1) in its publication, and/or 2) in an anthology of the winners of this contest, and/or 3) on its website. If your entry appears in print, we will mail you a free copy of the publication when it’s available. There is no guarantee that all of the finalists’ entries will be published. Publication will depend on the space available, the format being used, and editorial decisions about the balance of subject matter and treatment.
Prizes for winning entries
First place:
Six month’s membership in Ancestry.com’s World Edition
Copy of Family Tree Maker 2012
One year’s membership in Root Cellar – Sacramento Genealogical Society
One year’s membership in Root Cellar for a non–member friend
One admission to Root Cellar’s seminar
Second place:
One year’s membership in Fold 3
One year’s membership in Root Cellar – Sacramento Genealogical Society
One year’s membership in Root Cellar for a non–member friend
One admission to Root Cellar’s seminar
Third place:
One year’s membership in Root Cellar – Sacramento Genealogical Society
One year’s membership in Root Cellar for a non–member friend
One admission to Root Cellar’s seminar
Root Cellar thanks Ancestry.com and Fold3
for their generous donation of prizes.
Posted by Ron Setzer
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