Insights Into Our Future And Our Past

Somewhere in the family photo collection is a mysterious face that nobody can identify. Perhaps it is a photograph of one man or woman, standing alone, or perhaps it is a photograph of a group of individuals, with some identifiable individual, but some nameless faces besides.

One online family tree, www.myheritage.com, offers a helpful solution to this lack of identity: Facial Recognition software built right in to the family tree!  —Full Story

During a recorded telephone interview with my grandmother, I learned that her Christmas favorite gift was a tiny cupboard that her carpenter father made for her to store her tiny dishes. During the depression, her family lived on foods grown in their own garden, including corn, blanched, and spread on sheets in the attic to dry. As a child living in Arizona, she played “Run Sheepy Run,” where one child chased the others like a flock of sheep, scattering here and there. She recalled the smell of cut wood, and standing next to the wood stove to stay warm during cold winters.

Dusty books and papers are not the best place to begin gathering family history. Take advantage of family gatherings this holiday season —Full Story

Family History isn’t just about the past. It is very much about the present, and planning for the future! As a child, my parents took the time to make our hunt for a Christmas tree a memorable experience. Mom planned ahead so that the day before we left to hunt for our Christmas tree, we baked and decorated Christmas cookies.

The next day, bundled in warm clothes, three little children wandered waist-deep through the snow, close behind my father. —Full Story

My grandfather told me that for Christmas each year, he and his siblings each received a fragrant, sweet orange, and a bright shiny penny. It certainly added some perspective at a time when the Atari 2600 was the hottest item on the market, along with Cabbage Patch dolls and later, pricey Transformer toys. Simple gifts of the past like an extra bit of sugar on one’s breakfast oatmeal can bring a greater appreciation for the original purpose of the holiday season.

In addition to attending events held at the Family History Library to learn more about ancestral holiday traditions, there are many other ways to learn about ancestral holiday traditions.

—Full Story

Deciding which ancestor to search for can be as easy as looking at a family tree. First, look at the names, and birthplaces. Sometimes we feel a connection with a particular culture, like Scotland, Brazil, or Russia, and have a curiosity to learn more. Second, ask a family members stories about an ancestor, or for family legends. Sometimes playing detective to prove a family legend true or false can be just as exciting as discovering a new ancestor! Finally, examine your family tree for empty spaces. You may want to explore uncharted territory to find an unknown ancestor.

—Full Story

If you plan on visiting Temple Square this Christmas season, take a few minutes to warm up with a few holiday activities in the Family History Library! Children of every age are welcome to participate in scavenger hunts, listen to holiday madrigal concerts from children and teenagers across the state, or learn about Christmas traditions from around the world!

Learn holiday traditions from Tonga, Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico, Norway, Ireland, France, Sweden, and American Colonial and Pioneer times! —Full Story

Feelings toward family can, and should be an amazing thing! Despite good intentions, however, we all know someone who has difficulty bonding with immediate family members. The reasons may vary from minor misunderstandings, or a feeling of being different, to circumstances beyond anyone’s immediate control. Despite these exceptions, everyone can benefit from feeling a closeness with family members, whether those family members are living, or deceased. —Full Story

A new FamilyLink (WorldVitalRecords) website run by an historians incorporating suggestions from genealogists is currently in testing. The site has a map tie-in, which attempts to geocode events in history. Many historical events, famous people, and artifacts are already geocoded and on their test site. But they take it a step further. The default view also includes a timeline. Thus, you can focus your view of world history and the associated geocoded pins on the map to a particular time frame.

The timeline appears on a scale across the top of the map. You drag the desired time frame back through history or forward through time and the pins which appear on the map change to those appropriate to the selected part of the timeline. When you zoom in, the pins and the list to the right also adjust to cover only those events that took place in the time period selected and the part of the map currently viewable. Quite an accomplishment!

World History Ancestry Timeline

Even better, you can upload your GEDCOM and view your family birth and death events pinned (in the proper time frame, of course) along with famous people and events in history. You can upload sections of your family tree and then select which sections of your family tree to display on the map. Thus, you could upload separate GEDCOMs of your four grandparents’ ancestors and then view just one branch of the family at a time.

Their map legend gets cut off when you include ancestors, so let me just tell you what the various pins represent - gold pins - births, blue pins - deaths, orange people - famous people, red balloons - historical events. The site also allows you to add content (events, famous people, etc.), so it becomes a community product as well. I really like what they’ve done and hope it is successful.

It is currently in closed testing - you have to get an invite, and each tester is only allowed to invite ten others (mine are already gone, sorry). You can request an invite from their site at www.worldhistory.com.

In 2004, I started including blogs in my presentations about using technology in genealogy. In 2006, I thought blogs important enough to give a separate presentation at conferences which I titled The Bluster about Blogging. I’ve talked about several tools for reading and keeping up with blogs, including Google Reader, BlogLines, PageFlakes, and NetVibes. I finally settled on NetVibes as the one that suited me best.

I’ve always wanted to find a way to make it easier for blogging newbies to find blogs and get started in at least reading and tracking genealogy blogs. Last year, NetVibes released a new feature called NetVibes Universe which I hoped would allow me to do just that. I tried it without much success. Now, I have finally succeeding in setting up a familyhistory universe on NetVibes.

Family History Universe on NetVibes

The idea is that each blog or other source that you follow appears in a separate box on the screen. As shown in the image here, I’ve set it up to show six blogs, each in its own box and at the left a widget which displays the latest photo posted on Flickr which has the tag genealogy. What you can’t see in this miniature image is there are six tabs across the top to group the genealogy blogs which I follow into several general categories, namely–

1. General
2. Genealogy Companies
3. Genealogy 2
4. Genealogy 3
5. British Genealogy
6. Genealogy Technology

The Family History Universe can be shared and used by anyone. This gives them a chance to see what NetVibes is like as well as what blogs are like before having to try to personalize or set up their own. Anyone can view this Universe at www.netvibes.com/familyhistory. If you have suggestion of a blog you would like to add to this universe, please leave a comment.

Whether you have been searching for ancestors for one day or one decade, there is a place everyone should begin when learning about their families.

At age 18 I wanted to learn more about my ancestors. Someone told me I should ask my family members for help, and listen to their stories. I visited my great-uncle, and recorded our conversation on a tape recorder. He told me about the family car (an old Model-T), family vacations, and the death of his mother. I interviewed my grandmother using a device that recorded our telephone conversation. She told me about the food the family ate during the depression, and her early years as a nursing student when she mixed prescriptions by hand. I took a bold step and wrote a letter to a family member who had disowned my family. While the response was not especially friendly, she sent me an original obituary that did not exist anywhere else.

Obituary of Charles Jacobs

Searching for stories about ancestors doesn’t have to be difficult or confusing. It can begin in your own home! Family members you don’t even know may have photographs, stories, or other helpful information to get you started on your search to learn more about where you came from!