Past Website Awards and Recognition

Between 2000 and 2010, many award websites offered digital trophies to websites that met specific criteria related to the quality of their content, functionality, organization, depth, and graphic user interface. The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives received awards primarily for their Genealogy and Maritime content and other more general awards for overall quality and merit.

Table of Contents

• Genealogy Awards
• Maritime Awards
• Best Site Awards
• Merit Awards & Honorable Mentions
• Beyond the Badges: Understanding Early Web Awards
• History Behind the Badges: The Saga of Early Web Awards

For nearly two decades, since 2003, the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives has consistently been recognized with numerous Genealogy-related website awards, a testament to our enduring positive contribution to the global Genealogist community.

Got-Genealogy.com Awards Congratulations! I am so pleased to award to your site both of my genealogy awards. Families Connect Award of Excellence: got-genealogy - families connect Got Genealogy Award of Excellence: got-genealogy.com. I found your site very appealing and an asset to the genealogy community!! Keep up the terrific work!! Happy Researching!! Paula

The Silver Celtic Castle Award The review of your website, "The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives", has been completed, and I am pleased to offer you The Silver Celtic Castle Award, which you will find attached to this email. Your site provides a great resource center for anyone searching their genealogical roots, and you have designed a site that is easy to navigate, has great site content, shows originality and "heart-n-soul, and provides a family-safe environment for all viewers ! .... Thank you for allowing me to visit and review "the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives", and please accept these honors as a token of my appreciation! Congratulations! Sincerely, Donna O'Smollain-MacDhadhoc The Celtic Castle Awards -- AS! 3.5, WA 9 - Knight, APEX/CEMA Member, AEC-Global, EAI 2.0, OAI 2.0 The Rose Awards -- AS! 4.0, WA 10 - Prince, APEX/CEMA Member, AEC-Global, EAI 3.0, OAI 2.0

Genealogy Excellence Award Please accept the attached Genealogy Excellence Award from They Live Again for the dual effort of researching genealogy AND putting together a website to share information with your visitors. Congratulations! A link back for the award graphic to They Live Again would be appreciated. -theyliveagain.com

Nu-Horizons Design Studio Awards We thank you for inviting us to visit your home on the Internet. We applaud your site's ease of navigation, obvious hard work, and invaluable content. It is with great pleasure that we give you the Genealogy Award, as well as our Resource Award. Should you list your awards by country, this award is from Canada. The URL address to use for linking purposes is: www.akavirgo.com Regards, Lynne Miller

The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives have earned several Maritime Web Awards for their remarkable historical maritime archives. Our Ocean Travel section is one of the most visited on our site.

Gold Nautical Award What a magnificent website. Excellent design, content, and ease of navigation. A historical asset to the Maritime Community. Accordingly, I am pleased to award your site with our 'Gold Nautical Award'. Nautical Awards Program Lagoon View Yacht Club AS! 3.5; UWSAG 3.0; IWARA 3.0; EUTODA 3.0; Olympic 2.0; WA 1.0

ÐOVA Maritime Award 18 Aug 2005: Congratulations you won the ÐOVA Maritime Award. I have reviewed your web page and was interested in reading about the collection at the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives, from the extensive brochures to the documents collection and large passenger list data. Congratulations on a detailed archive. ÐOVA Draikar

RMS Titanic Historical Award of Excellence Congratulations! You have won my historical site award. I must say that you have a terrific site and I have enjoyed visiting it. The maritime section is very informative and I can tell that you have put forth a great deal of time and effort to research. By the way, I've enjoyed the other aspects that your site has to offer, especially the section on "Psalmodikon." Very interesting. Keep up the EXCELLENT work! ~Trisha~

GOLD Pakistani Maritime Web Award We appreciate the opportunity to review and evaluate your website. It is an honor to consider your site for the Pakistani Maritime Web Awards. We are delighted and honored to award your website the GOLD Pakistani Maritime Web Award. The PakistaniMaritime Web Awards have been initiated to encourage those creating websites that intend to promote the maritime industry on the internet to the general public and provide useful information for the other segments of the maritime community. Successful award winners demonstrate, meet, and exceed the following criteria: Maritime industry-related content Error, free coding for most browsers, Choice of colors, Arrangement of graphics, Minimal loading time with respect to page content, and Quality of content. The PakistaniMaritime Web Awards are not given away to every applicant, the granting of the gold award is very selective and the requirements include, though not limited to, comprehensive maritime content online for the general public as well as for the benefit of the industry blended with excellence in web design skills and motives behind the online presence. We enjoyed surfing your site, and we are sure everybody else will too. It is with great pleasure that we give you the Pakistani Maritime Gold Web Award. Congratulations! Thank you again for submitting your website and for helping to promote the maritime world on the World Wide Web. Qaisar Qayyum for Pakistani Maritime Web Awards.

Maritime Web Award Gold Site Wow !! What an informative website. We have only begun to scratch the surface of your website, but it is already clear that there has been a huge effort in collating the vessel details and even passenger lists, we have no choice but to grant your site our GOLD award, congratulations and thanks for providing such thorough information, which must be of great help to those in America seeking to trace their roots. Thank you again for submitting your website and for helping to promote the historic maritime world to the general public in a positive and educational light.

The Ocean Liner Resource Award 12 May 2003 The Ocean Liner Resource Award... As for your application, your site is, of course, more than qualified as a winner! The steamship section offers an immense wealth of pictorial material, which I am sure many of my site visitors will be delighted to explore! Please find attached to this e-mail a jpeg version of the award graphic. Feel free to display it wherever you think appropriate on your site. Also, please let me know once you have done so, and I will then go ahead and add you to our Award Hall of Fame. Best regards from Sweden Henrik Ljungström, Webmaster THE GREAT OCEAN LINERS "A voyage to times gone by"

Site Citations and Awards for having a "Best Site" are impressive achievements. Below are several examples of Website Awards earned by the GG Archives over the years.

Family Tree Magazine Site of the Day Congratulations! Family Tree Magazine has chosen Passenger Lists of the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives as Site of the Day for 18 March 2003 because we think it will be a wonderful online resource for our readers. If, in the future, you add a new, significant feature to your site, please let me know. We may feature your site again as Site of the Day because of the additional value to our visitors! Please contact me if you have any questions. Again, we salute your excellent site and hope it continues to grow in the future! Lori Goetzinger Editorial Assistant Family Tree Magazine.

Alba's Site of the Week Award As I traveled to your website, I appreciated how easy it was to navigate the pages and your dedication to covering so many topics! Great work. So ... attached is Alba's Site of the Week award. Sith agus Slainte bha! (Peace and Good Health to you!) Margaret, Alba Awards A Celtic Heart Remembers acelticheart.com. (2008-10-21)

A Celtic Heart Remembers Genealogy Best of the Web Award Thank you so much for inviting me to view your website, you have done a marvelous job creating a site that is interesting and safe for all members of the family to enjoy! Attached is the award you requested. I wish you well in all your endeavors. Sith agus Slainte bha! (Peace and Good Health to you!) Margaret, Alba Awards A Celtic Heart Remembers acelticheart.com. (2008-10)

American Association Of Webmasters Silver Award The American Association Of Webmasters Awards are primarily designed to supply formal recognition to webmasters and designers who have shown outstanding achievement in web design, content and creativity. Congratulations! Your site at: The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives has been selected to receive The American Association Of Webmasters, "Silver" Award. We see all the hard work and dedication that you have put into constructing your web site and your efforts are well deserved. Your site displays: A nice clean Design and Layout of Website, with quality content and informative information for your visitors. Congratulations once again on a wonderful website and contributing interesting content to the World Wide Web We wish you all the best. Sincerely, Donna Snyder - CEO Awards Committee - American Association Of Webmasters Rated With AS! 5.0 - World's Elite Award Listed In "The Webmasters Guide To Glory" CEO of - The World Wide Web Awards Member of The Better Business Bureau. (2008-05)

Vintage Kin Red Ribbon Award Congratulations Vintage Kin is pleased to award to the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives our Red Ribbon Award; sites in this category display an advanced level of web design, provide outstanding site content and offer exceptional value to the genealogical community. Well done! Your award graphic is attached and your site has already been added to our list of 2008 award recipients. An additional link has been placed on our links page. Kind Regards Ric (Vintage Kin Genealogical Design Studio) vintagekin.com. (2008-05)

Heritage Awards for Genealogical Websites What an interesting website! The information provided is thorough and well-documented. Excellent photos, a real treasure chest of information for anyone interested in learning more about the voyages from Europe to America. I'm pleased to attach our gold award and the summary review worksheet. All of our reviewers rated your site highly, and you can be rightly proud of the great resource you've created for internet researchers! WEBSITE FINAL SCORE 100 Gold: 91-100 points DATE OF NOTIFICATION: 19-Apr-2008 COMMENTS This website offers detailed information about the ships and the process of immigration. A valuable source for anyone interested in genealogy or immigration history. (2008-04)

The Maritime Web Awards NON-EUROPEAN WINNERS The Maritime Web Site Award is completely free and exists to promote the maritime world on the internet. Anyone can apply to have their non-commercial maritime websites considered HERE. The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives, a website outside of Europe, has recently applied for and has been granted the prestigious GOLD award as they have proven to display exemplary, informative maritime content. (2008-03)

Military World Certified Site Award Military World is pleased to announce your site has been reviewed and you have won our Certified Site Award. The sites are judged on content, functionality, graphics, and usefulness to the general public. We spend a lot of time reviewing sites and not all make the grade. You have done a great job, keep up the good work! Thank You, Military World 2003-08-15.

The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives have received the following Website Awards based on Merit or awards granted for Honorable Mentions.

CyberiaPC.com Approved Site Your Award: CyberiaPC.com Approved Site Great web site! I really enjoyed it and some of the sections were really interesting. Wish you the best of luck. Best regards, Ali Almossawi CyberiaPC.com Webmaster, software developer, MCP Awarded to sites that are enjoyable and fun to be at. They may not have the best design or navigation, but they showcase some interesting content.

Vie's Inn of Wonders' Merit Award Congratulations!! After thoroughly reviewing your site, we, the Staff of Vie's Inn of Wonders' Awards, have decided to grant you our Merit Award. An impressive amount of info gathered there. The research alone must have been very time-consuming. Very impressive. Keep up the good work and enjoy your award! Best regards, The Staff.

✍️ Essay Prompts for Classroom Use

Teacher Note: The following prompts are designed for classroom use and can be adapted for middle school, high school, or college-level assignments. They align with history, social studies, and language arts objectives and are meant to encourage critical thinking, research skills, and written expression.

Context: Early Web Awards

During the early 2000s, “web awards” were a widespread phenomenon. Many genealogy, history, and personal project sites proudly displayed digital trophies — often small graphics — as a sign of recognition. The criteria varied widely: some awards focused on content depth, others on design or navigation, and in many cases, simply having a functional and regularly updated site was enough to earn recognition. It was very much the “Wild West” of the Internet, where community-driven acknowledgment helped foster credibility and visibility before the dominance of today’s search and social platforms.

For researchers studying the evolution of online communities and recognition systems, these awards serve as artifacts of early web culture. They illustrate how niche websites, like the GG Archives, found ways to connect with wider audiences and establish trust in a period when institutional voices were less dominant online.

📚 Beyond the Badges: Understanding Early Web Awards

At first glance, this page may seem like a collage of forgotten digital ribbons and trophies. But these website awards tell a deeper story about the early Internet. They represent an era when recognition was visual, community-driven, and sometimes a little over-the-top—much like generals with every medal proudly pinned to their chest.

To help students and researchers, we’ve prepared background notes and essay prompts that transform these “eye-candy” awards into historical evidence of how online communities once worked.

Table of Contents

• Historical Context: The Wild West of the Early Web
• A Touch of Irony: Digital Medals for Every Site
• Essay Prompts for Students

• College-Level Prompts
• Grades 8–12 Prompts

🌐 Historical Context: The Wild West of the Early Web

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Internet was still new to most households. Connecting often meant dialing into AOL, Prodigy, or CompuServe—and listening to the distinctive dial-up tones before you could even “go online.” Many early users hesitated to venture outside of AOL’s “walled garden” because the broader Internet seemed uncharted and even risky.

Web awards emerged in this environment as a way for site owners to prove that their pages were “legitimate” and worth visiting. Just having a functioning website often earned you a badge. Over time, awards became a form of digital status symbol—predecessors to the likes, followers, and verified checkmarks that dominate social media today.

🎖️ A Touch of Irony: Collecting Digital Medals

Looking back, the obsession with digital awards seems almost humorous. Site owners would proudly line up their badges at the bottom of their pages, stacking them like military medals. Some were elegant, others looked hastily made—but all were treasured. Eye-catching graphics mattered as much as the “honor” itself, making award pages the eye candy of the early web.

For historians today, these awards provide a unique lens on how recognition, credibility, and community operated online before the age of Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok.

✍️ Essay Prompts for Students

Teachers and students can use this page as a springboard to reflect on how recognition online has evolved. Below are two sets of essay prompts tailored to different levels of study.

📜 History Behind the Badges: The Saga of Early Web Awards

In the early 2000s, the internet was a very different place than it is today. Websites were often hand-coded by hobbyists, and design standards varied widely. Many early sites featured “splash pages” with a single button that said “Click Here to Enter” before a visitor could even reach the main content. Graphics were heavy, load times were slow, and some of the designs—by today’s standards—were, as their creators admit, downright hideous. Yet within this new digital frontier, communities sprang up to celebrate and encourage one another through Web Awards.

These awards, often displayed as digital badges, were given for categories such as “Best Genealogy Site,” “Maritime Excellence,” or simply “Site of the Day.” While some were carefully reviewed by volunteer judges, others seemed to function more like participation trophies: if your website was live and functional, you stood a good chance of receiving one. Still, they mattered—both to webmasters and to visitors. A well-designed or elegant-looking badge was a mark of pride, often placed prominently at the bottom of a homepage like military medals pinned to a uniform.

For small archives like the GG Archives, these awards were more than eye candy. They were early validation that the hours of work put into scanning, coding, and writing were being noticed by a wider community. In a time before today’s dominant search engines and social media platforms, awards provided visibility, credibility, and even traffic. They served as proof that a site was “safe,” “interesting,” or “worth a visit” in an era when the web itself still felt like the Wild West.

Looking back, these badges now provide a window into the culture of the early web—where community recognition mattered as much as content, and where hobbyists and professionals alike learned, experimented, and sometimes failed publicly. They remind us that the internet has always been a blend of serious scholarship and playful experimentation. Today, they stand not just as decorations but as historical artifacts in their own right.

Essay Prompts for Students (8th–12th Grade)

• Web Awards as “Digital Medals”: Compare early web awards to military medals or school trophies. How did they shape perceptions of credibility online? (500 words)
• The Wild West of Design: Research the “click to enter” page phenomenon and discuss why these splash screens were so common in the late 1990s and early 2000s. (500 words)
• AOL and the Walled Garden: Describe how platforms like AOL provided both safety and limitation to early internet users. How does this compare to modern platforms and social media? (500 words)
• From Badges to SEO: Early awards brought recognition; today, websites chase rankings and visibility on Google. How has the measure of online “success” changed? (500 words)