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 Wednesday, March 03, 2010
We're Bundled Up
Posted by Diane
…. and we don’t mean because of the weather.
We took our CDs, books and webinars that offer genealogy help with three of the topics you’re most interested in, packaged them up into themed “bundles” and discounted them to give you a great deal. Three bundles are available at ShopFamilyTree.com:
- The Organized Genealogy Bundle: Organize Your Genealogy Life! CD, Organization Made Easy webinar recording, Organize Now! book, 2010 Family Tree Magazine Desktop Calendar
You'll find more details on the contents of each bundle in ShopFamilyTree.com.
Editor's Pick | Family Heirlooms | Genealogy books | Research Tips
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:40:40 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Ways to Leave a Family History Legacy
Posted by Diane
“What do I do now?” is something I hear from readers every once in a while, as in, I’ve done all this research—now what should I do with it?
What I like about this “Best of” excerpt from Sharon DeBartolo Carmack’s “How to Be a Good Ancestor” article in the April 2005 Family Tree Magazine is that it helps answer that question. These are a few of her ideas for putting together and passing on your family history.
Start scrapbooking. Only your imagination limits the scrapbooks you can create. There's the standard heritage album, but also consider these five themes:
- Family reunion: Make a scrapbook of the gang's get-together, including programs, photos and interviews.
- School: Create school scrapbooks for yourself and for your spouse, as well as your children. Scan or photocopy yearbook pages and include memorabilia (report cards, your graduation tassel) plus journaled memories of events and friends.
- Cemetery: Photograph grave markers, and find death certificates and obituaries.
- Immigration and migration: Maps, passenger lists, passports and naturalization records document your ancestors' travels. Record their modes of transportation with images of prairie schooners or the ships that bore them across the Atlantic.
- House history: Include deeds, pictures (take photos of similar buildings, if the houses aren't around anymore), descriptions of the furniture and décor, and information on the people who lived in each house.
Assemble an album. Photo albums are a natural legacy project. Just be sure to identify the photos with names, dates and places. One must-have guide for learning how to find and identify photographs: Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs, revised edition (Family Tree Books), by Maureen A. Taylor.
But what about all those cool documents you've been collecting, such as military records, passenger arrival lists, vital records, censuses, and wills? Start a binder for each surname and organize documents and charts for each individual behind tabs in acid-free sheet protectors. Place a label on each sheet protector identifying the document and the source where you got it. Not only is this project a great legacy, but it also forces you to keep your research in order.
Put your family history into words. If writing is a pastime you enjoy, try one of these projects:
- Book: This is the ultimate way to hand down your history legacy because you can give copies to everyone in the family — and even to libraries and archives. My book You Can Write Your Family History (Genealogical Publishing Co.) provides genealogy-focused writing and publishing advice.
- Essays: Compile a collection of essays on topics such as your own experiences or memories of relatives, then copy and distribute them to kin. If you collect the essays in a binder, you and other family members can add to them easily.
- Articles: Maybe you don't have enough information to fill a book, but you still want to publish your research results or tell other researchers about a brick wall you've conquered. Genealogical society journals and newsletters are good places to do this. Consult Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century edited by Henry B. Hoff (New England Historic Genealogical Society) for help writing a publication-worthy article.
- Letters: Whether you mail them or not, compose letters to the youngest members of your family to tell them what life was like when you were growing up. Write about your parents and grandparents, recording your fondest memories of spending time with them in addition to facts about their lives. Make copies for all the kids in your family, and present them on a special occasion.
Feast on family food heritage. Gather family recipes to create a book, CD or Web site for your kin who like to cook. Along with each recipe, include a photo of the dish and the cook who's most famous for it, a brief biography of the chef, and notes about the holidays or occasions when the dish was served. If your family has a strong cultural background, such as Italian or Hispanic, incorporate some food history gleaned from ethnic cookbooks. When family members gather for a meal, don't forget to turn on that tape recorder or video camera. Capture some of the food-focused conversation to include in the recipe book.
Related resources Family Tree Magazine:
Celebrating your heritage | Family Heirlooms
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 9:51:15 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Coming Soon: Easy Decorative Family Tree Printing
Posted by Diane
Family tree chart printer Generation Maps is planning a new service that’ll make it easy for you to create decorative family trees.
Family ChArtist, to launch in early March (the exact date will be announced soon), is a Flash application you’ll use on the Generation Maps website to create decorative family tree charts. You’ll be able to print an 8.5x11-inch version for free, and purchase larger copies as instant PDFs or by mail.
The application will let you choose a design and add names and genealogical details by typing, uploading a GEDCOM, or importing information from a FamilySearch family tree (for those Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints members who have access to the “new” FamilySearch online tree-builder). Generation Maps development director Janet Hovorka says the company also is working with other online family tree services to allow data imports from those sites.
You can see several examples and get more details on Hovorka’s Chart Chick blog. This is among my favorites from her selection:
Celebrating your heritage | Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Web Sites
Thursday, February 18, 2010 4:30:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, January 06, 2010
May We Suggest Some Genealogy Resolutions for 2010?
Posted by Diane
Studies show (well, at least one study shows) that 66 percent of adults have ever made a New Year’s resolution.
So maybe I risk losing a third of you when I suggest making a genealogy-oriented resolution or two. But wait! If you stick around for the rest of this post, I’ll give you some ideas and link to articles that might be helpful in achieving your family history goals:
- Back up your digitized photos, too (in the May 2010 Family Tree Magazine, we’ll recommend several photo-sharing websites for backing up family photos).
Resolve to rent one title a month through a nearby Family History Center. You can get more advice on using FamilySearch in our FamilySearch Essentials Webinar recording. - Go through your attic and closets and catalog your family heirlooms. You can use our heirloom recording forms to note the items' original owner, provenance, and other important information.
- Commit an hour or so a week to volunteering for a records indexing project. Try FamilySearch Indexing or Ancestry.com’s World Archives Project, or see if your local library or historical society could use your indexing assistance.
- If you’re a beginning family historian, resolve to search the 1930 census (the most recent one available) for every relative who was alive at the time. See our census search tips, and visit a large library to use census microfilm, HeritageQuest Online or Ancestry Library Edition.
Family Heirlooms | Oral History | Photos | Research Tips
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 5:29:49 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, December 03, 2009
Editors Pick: Photo-Retouching Webinar
Posted by Diane
We also could call this “Give Great-grandma a Makeover.” Everybody’s got a few family photos marred by scratches, creases and fading. Sometimes it’s the only picture you have of an ancestor or of a special event, such as a wedding.
In our next Family Tree University webinar, Family Tree Magazine art director Christy Miller, who wields photo retouching skills on a daily basis, will show you how to digitally correct these flaws and bring your old family pictures back to life.
Early color photos are especially prone to fading. Here's an example of what photo-retouching can do for faded pictures:
 
Every participant is invited to submit a photo. Christy will demo the techniques on several of these photos during the webinar. After the session, each participant will receive a digital copy of his or her retouched photo.
Christy and Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy also will offer tips on getting good scans of your pictures, recommend user-friendly (and wallet-friendly) photo-editing software, and tell you how to get professional help for repairing badly damaged pictures.
The webinar, Photo Retouching: How to Bring Old Family Photos Back to Life, is next Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. Eastern. Registration costs $49.99.
Your registration includes participation in the live presentation and Q&A session, access to the webinar recording to view as many times as you like, our downloadable Genealogy Guidebook featuring 100+ brick wall-busting tips, and a digital copy of your retouched photo.
Click here to register at ShopFamilyTree.com. After you register, use the link on your order confirmation page to confirm your webcast registration.
Family Heirlooms | Photos | Webinars
Thursday, December 03, 2009 2:00:59 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Editors Pick: Family Tree Legacies
Posted by Diane
Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy and I talked about everything we’d want in one of those “record your family history” books, and Family Tree Legacies: Preserving Memories Throughout Time is the result. We’re a little biased, but we love how well-organized, versatile and pretty it is (and we think it would make a good Christmas or wedding gift).
This book is a three-ring binder with blank fill-in pages for all kinds of information, and a CD in the back that has printable versions of all the fill-in pages.
Lovely tabbed separators divide the book into themed sections, each focusing on a different type of family history information.
Sections let you record details about your immediate family, extended family, memories and traditions, photographs, family heirlooms, relatives who served in the military, newspaper articles featuring family members, places that are prominent in your family history, family recipes and important dates.
Each section begins with tips and tricks (the one below gets you started finding newspaper articles about your family members) . . .
. . . and then has specially designed pages to record information. The pages below are in the Family Heirlooms section.
There’s also an introduction with 10 steps to discovering your family history and a reference guide with helpful references, websites and books. We also love the fold-out family tree chart (below).
You can use the stickers to mark historical family events in the calendar section, maps in the Places section and more.
We’re hoping Family Tree Legacies will become a keepsake you can pass on to future generations.
Celebrating your heritage | Family Heirlooms | Genealogy books
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:09:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Now's the Time to Start on Family History Gifts
Posted by Diane
We don’t mean to rush you into the winter holidays—it was just Halloween—but if you’re thinking of giving family history-related gifts this year, now’s the time to start.
Many such gifts require prep work: For example, you’ll need to gather, scan, digitally touch up and label photos for a photo CD; start laying out an online photo book or calendar; or collect and transcribe family stories. Maybe you want to check another record or two before finalizing a compiled family history.
And by starting early, you can watch for coupon codes and sales; and make sure anything you order online will get to you in time.
As our early gift to you, here’s our December 2006 article with 13 family history gift ideas you can make. The projects range from very quick and easy to moderately quick and easy. The article has supply lists and step-by-step instructions for seven of the projects.
A few more sources of family tree gift ideas:
- I’m kinda partial to this one: Family Tree Legacies, a book Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy and I put together for recording all kinds of family history information—not just names and dates, but also family stories, news articles, house history, military service details, where people lived and more.
Celebrating your heritage | Family Heirlooms | Family Tree Magazine articles | Genealogy fun
Thursday, November 05, 2009 2:07:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
10 Ways to Use Your December 2009 Family Tree Magazine
Posted by Diane
The December 2009 Family Tree Magazine should be hitting subscribers’ mailboxes during the next week (yes, it’s already December in Magazine Land). I randomly picked out 10 ways this issue might figure into your family history pursuit:
1. Start a family medical history with nine sources that can help you learn what illnesses your ancestors suffered and died from. (See, I thought I’d start this post on a bright note.) Click here for our online listing of health history books and Web sites.
2. And for a slightly morbid yet somewhat educational five-minute time-killer, try to match up 12 archaic maladies with their modern equivalents.
3. Plan your heirloom preservation strategy with a guide to preserving a variety of keepsakes—including a quilt, a delicate wedding ring and other items our coworkers at Family Tree Magazine headquarters brought in. (Associate editor Grace Dobush blogged about the shady past of one such heirloom.)
4. Are genetic genealogy tests really 99.9 percent accurate? Will they pinpoint where your ancestors lived? Discover the truth behind common beliefs about DNA and genealogy, and use quick-reference lists of testing companies, definitions and online DNA databases.
5. Follow along with our step-by-step guide to entering genetic genealogy test results in two genealogy software programs.
6. Did you know the historical newspaper search at GenealogyBank treats personal names like keywords? That means if your name is also a word, such as White or Banker, you’ll get lots of false matches. (The site’s obituaries and SSDI database are indexed by name). You’ll find search tricks in our Web Guide to GenealogyBank.
7. Can’t find your ancestor’s town of “Gross Herzogtum, Baden?” That’s because gross Herzogtum isn’t a town, but a term for “grand duchy.” Find explanations for this and other place terms related to ruling nobility in our guide to research in German states, including Prussia, Hesse, Bavaria and others. (See articles in our online German research toolkit here.)
8. Thinking of adding (or already have added) a genealogy app to your Facebook page? Get the lowdown on FamilyLink's We're Related and Family Builder's Family Tree, two popular genealogy apps for Facebook.
9. Chuckle over six readers’ captions for a giant-fish photo and enter our newest All in the Family Challenge.
10. Where's that one article ... the one about the census ... not the regular census but the special ones ... ? Stop flipping through all this year’s magazines and open to the 2009 index on the last page of your December issue. You'll find that the article on nonpopulation censuses was in the July 2009 Family Tree Magazine on page 20.
Of course, there are even more great resources and tips in the December 2009 Family Tree Magazine. It'll be available starting Nov. 3 at ShopFamilyTree.com.
Family Heirlooms | Family Tree Magazine articles | Genealogy Web Sites | Genetic Genealogy | International Genealogy
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:38:18 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, September 25, 2009
Genealogy News Corral: September 21-25
Posted by Diane
Is it the end of September already?? Here's our last new roundup for the month
- Today’s the last day to get the $55 early bird registration special for the Mesa Family History Expo, Jan. 22-23 in Mesa, Ariz. If you miss the deadline, you still can save by preregistering for $65. Admission at the door costs $75. The exhibit hall is free to the public.
- Those with African-American roots, mark your calendars for the International Black Genealogy Summit at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct. 29 to 31. It’s the first gathering of African-American historical and genealogical societies from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Watch this blog for more details.
- On his Genealogy Blog, Leland Meitzler reported on the SwedGen Tour, in which a team of Swedish
genealogy experts is stopping at several research facilities to give
presentations on Swedish genealogy resources (including subscription
records site Genline and the Släktdata vital records site) and offer
one-on-one consultations. See the schedule and preregister at the
SwedGen Tour site.
- I came across a neat blog today called Dear Annie. A Minnesota woman is posting 700 postcards (images and transcriptions) that her Great-aunt Annie Bartos, who died in 1983, saved during her 90 years.
African-American roots | Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Events | International Genealogy
Friday, September 25, 2009 7:44:31 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Ancestry.com to Digitize Records and Photos Free at FGS
Posted by Allison
Consider bringing your family's records with you if you’re going to the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference Sept. 2-5 in Little Rock.
Ancestry.com is bringing high–speed scanners so conference-goers can digitize records and photos.
You can sign up for a 15–minute scanning session Sept. 3 through Sept. 5 during exhibit hall hours (9:30 am to 5 pm Thursday, Sept. 3; 9 am to 5 pm Friday and Saturday). That's enough time to scan an estimated 100 photos and/or documents.
You'll need to stop by the scanning station in the convention center’s Toltec Lobby registration area in the morning to snag a scanning session for that day.
Ancestry.com imaging specialists will operate the scanners—a looseleaf scanner for documents and photos; a planetary scanner for books and fragile items. You’ll get the full-color digital images on a free flash drive. The cynics among you can rest assured your records won’t be uploaded to Ancestry.com.
Be judicious about the documents and photos you bring: There’s always the possibility your items could be damaged during scanning. Whatever you do, don’t pack irreplaceable records in checked luggage.
Ancestry.com asks those who plan to participate in the scanning to go to this Web page and click Register.
Ancestry.com | Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Events
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 1:37:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, August 14, 2009
Jamie's flea market finds
Posted by Jamie
Recently I was on vacation in western New York and visited a small-town flea market. While there were only 15 to 20 booths set up, many of them had genealogical treasures abound including old letters, photos and World War II ration books scattered across tables among the costume jewelry and used board games.
Of course my first thoughts as I saw these items outdoors and uncovered were, “Get these things out of the sun and into acid-free tissue paper!” These are someone’s family heirlooms after all. I scoured piles of unmarked pictures, scrutinizing each one and lamenting that they did not have a home. All the while I am sure the sun took a disastrous toll on them.
If you come across a similar situation, Dead Fred allows users to upload found photos, search identified photo databases, and help identify and find mates for unidentified photos. Flickr’s Found Photographs group features mostly unidentified photos picked up at garage sales, flea markets or your grandmother’s attic.
Also at the flea market I found a bag full of WWII ration cards, and I was amazed at the genealogical information available on them. Some just had name and address, but others went further supplying age, sex, weight, height and occupation. The books for sale were from the third and fourth series, both issued in 1943. The names on two of the books at the flea market were Kenneth and Hazel E. Valk. To search for your ancestors in a war ration book database of over 9,000 names click here.
While these were all great finds, the letters were most intriguing. Some sellers at least put them in plastic baggies, but still others let them bake in the sun – folded up at that! There were unopened letters, letters in envelops, envelops without letters, greeting cards, postcards, wedding invitations, governmental correspondence – even a few marked “passed by censor” sent from an infantry unit postmarked “JY. 15, 18”
Most of the letters were sent to Leroy Elder, but many are either unsigned or are signed with a nickname. They are postmarked from 1909 to 1922. One of the funnier postcards was from a pastor sternly urging Edler to pay him a visit to discuss the state of Elder's Christianity.
Among the stack of letters was a folded poem of sorts titled “The Charming Young Widow In The Train.” The paper is yellowed and ripping along the folds; the ink is disappearing. It wasn’t dated and it was not in an envelope. The top has some sort of imprint or watermark and the end says, “Written B. Mollie E.V.”
I did a Google search of the title and an old song pops up, written in the mid-1800s according to most accounts. The poem roughly follows the song, although some lines and words are different, the main ideas are the same. How the lyrics got among the letters is a mystery.
Overall, the trip to the flea market was eye opening. I didn’t realize how readily family history was for sale. And if sellers don’t use the modern flea market of eBay many people won’t be reunited with their relative’s items.
Family Heirlooms | Photos
Friday, August 14, 2009 6:57:31 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Playing Heirloom Detective
Posted by Grace
I just finished writing a super-comprehensive article on heirloom preservation for our December issue. We asked our coworkers if they had any particularly interesting heirlooms to show off, and got some great items to photograph for the magazine.
An item we didn't use was very intriguing, though. Kelly wrote:
Let me know if you guys ever do an article on gruesome heirlooms—my family has this shirt that my great-great grandfather was wearing when he was shot and murdered. (Gross! And weird—who keeps that kind of stuff?)
Genealogists do! I wanted more details.
Basically, all I know is my great-great grandfather was a pig farmer who had a farm in Lockville, Ohio. According to the story, my great-great-grandpa turned to go back into the house after refusing to sell land to this guy, and when he did, the guy shot him in the back. Yikes! And that's how my grandpa ended up with a bloody shirt in a trunk in his basement.
All I knew was her grandpa's last name, Boyer, and that the murder took place in Lockville, Ohio. Surely there would have been newspaper articles about the fracas, but I couldn't search GenealogyBank until I had a specific name. I decided to do an old-fashioned Google search, for Lockville Ohio murder.
One of the very first results was a Google Books excerpt of a tome of Ohio penitentiary pardon petitions. Bingo! A John L. Tisdale pleading for clemency after serving eight years for the murder of a George L. Boyer in 1890. With that name, I searched GenealogyBank and found this article in the June 24, 1890, Cleveland Plain Dealer:
It reads:
Murder at Lockville.
LANCASTER, June 23.—[Special.]—George (sic) Tisdale, a farm laborer, shot George L. Boyer, a prominent famrer, at Lockville, this county, this morning. As the two sons of Tisdale were quarreling with a son of Boyer about hogs that had trespassed on Boyer's farm, he came up to protect his son, when Tisdale came out of his house and shot Boyer in the right breast, Boyer dying in five minutes after.
The Google Books result gives a little more insight into Tisdale's side of the story. He says Boyer was "a coarse, passionate man, of cruel heart" and was "a quarrelsome man and possessed a violent temper." (If you were trying to suss out your ancestor's personality, what a find! Read the September 2009 issue for more on ancestral psychoanalysis.)
With a little searching on Ancestry.com, I found the Boyer family in the 1880 census:
(Click to enlarge)
And going back, the family appeared in the same spot in every census going back to 1850. Amazing, what one bloody shirt can do for a family's research!
Learn more:
Family Heirlooms | Family Tree Magazine articles | Free Databases | Newspapers
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:51:25 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, June 08, 2009
Heirloom Webinar Discount Expires Tonight
Posted by Allison
Attention, coupon clippers: Today is your last chance to save $10 off registration in our next webinar, Heirloom Preservation Made Easy.
Use coupon code yc72fk78cr when you sign up to get the early bird price of $39.99. The coupon expires at midnight Eastern daylight time today, June 8. The webinar will take place June 24 at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Although it's easy to get caught up in the challenges of research, this session focuses on a subject we often don't pay enough attention to until a precious memento is lost or ruined. Don't let that happen to you!
Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Events | Webinars
Monday, June 08, 2009 5:01:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Learn How to Care for Your Family's Treasures
Posted by Diane
In our little house, we have a few objects—nothing super-valuable—that I consider heirlooms: A dress my grandma sewed using the same pattern as her wedding dress; my husband’s grandfather’s harmonica; a playing card box from the time my dad’s family lived in Pickstown, SD, while his dad was working on the Fort Randall dam.
It’s not so much the thing, it’s what the thing represents to you. So heirlooms can take all kinds of shapes and sizes, and present an array of storage challenges—which makes me glad our next Webinar is about Heirloom Preservation Made Easy.
It's scheduled for Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. My colleague Grace Dobush will present expert, sensible, easy-to-follow techniques on caring for and displaying everything from photos to old dolls and toys. Your registration for this Webinar includes - Participation in the live presentation and Q&A session
- Online access to the workshop recording after the session concludes
- PDF of the presentation slides for future reference
- Quick-reference heirloom care chart
- PDF of See and Save, a guide to protecting and storing paper, photos and textiles
- PDF of Keep It Reel, a guide to preserving audio and video memories
Go here to learn more and register—and get an early bird coupon code good for $10 off your registration fee through June 8.
Family Heirlooms | Webinars
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 7:15:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
To Save or Not to Save?
Posted by Diane
My mom’s been helping clean out Grandma’s garage. Last night when I visited, Mom was telling me about the piles of old receipts Grandma’s been hanging onto all these years. Mom had pulled out some papers—the hospital bill for my aunt’s birth, the building materials order for the family’s first home—and the rest were in what-do-we-do-with-this? limbo. Of course, I had to go through it all. I took a bunch of papers, including the bill for Mom’s first communion around 1954  and the receipts for her second-grade schoolbooks (someone played connect-the-dots on the back)   and 12th-grade tuition (including a $25 graduation fee). I’ll definitely save stuff related to my mom. But what about the other kids’ schoolbook lists, random furniture receipts, a refrigerator repair ticket, ancient correspondence from an insurance company, BBB reports on business schools an aunt was thinking about attending, and similar items? Theoretically, it’s great to keep every piece of paper. But with limited space and crowded lives, reality demands most of us be choosy about what we save. What would you do with these papers? Click Comments (below) to reply. Added to my to-do list: Review the February 2007 Family Tree Magazine guide for what to do when you inherit the family archives (print copies are sold out, but this issue is available as a PDF download). And if you're considering donating family materials to a historical archive, see the advice on our Now What? blog.
Family Heirlooms | Family Tree Magazine articles | Libraries and Archives
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 2:15:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Monday, March 02, 2009
Superstitious Ancestors? Enter Our Challenge for a Chance to Win
Posted by Diane
It’s both 15 days till St. Patrick's Day and your last chance to get in on Family Tree Magazine’s March 2009 “Lucky Charms” All in the Family Challenge. To enter, tell us about a lucky charm or superstition in your family. For example, when I was a kid, whenever someone was getting married or we had a soccer tournament or good weather was needed for some other reason, Mom would set a figurine of Mary in the kitchen window (facing outside, or it wouldn't work). Maybe you’ve saved Grandpa’s lucky penny or you throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder while cooking, just like Grandma always did. Cross your fingers and describe your family’s lucky charm or superstition for us. E-mail your entry before March 9, and be sure to include your name and hometown. If we select your entry to publish in the July 2009 Family Tree Magazine (knock on wood), you’ll win our Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy digital download.
Celebrating your heritage | Family Heirlooms | Family Tree Magazine articles
Monday, March 02, 2009 9:25:38 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Difficulty of Divvying Up Family Heirlooms
Posted by Diane
Family Heirlooms
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:50:49 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, May 30, 2008
Legislators Discuss Copyright Reform
Posted by Grace
Ever been hassled by a clerk who demands you have permission from the photographer before making copies of a 100-year-old portrait? Under current copyright law, you'll likely lose the fight with Wal-Mart's photo department. (Read more about copyright quandaries here.) Legislation working its way through the House and the Senate focuses on so-called "orphan works"—creations whose copyright owners cannot be identified or located. When someone wants to use or reproduce a work that is likely copyrighted, they risk being held liable for infringement; this reform aims to free up orphan works for public use. Although artists have concerns about the current legislation, copyright reform would be a boon for family historians, museums, libraries and educational institutions. You can read more about the legislation on the website of our sister publication The Artist's Magazine here.
Family Heirlooms | Historic preservation | Public Records
Friday, May 30, 2008 7:33:18 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, April 11, 2008
Edit Your Photos Online!
Posted by Grace
When it comes to image editing, the gold standard is Photoshop. Even if you haven't used the full-blown version, you've likely come across its less expensive sibling, Photoshop Elements.
Now, a free version of the software is available online—with 2 GB of storage thrown in. Adobe Photoshop Express offers many of the features included with Elements, such as cropping, color correction and some fun filter and distortion options. (Be aware, though, that agreeing to the terms of service gives other users the rights to display, print and distribute your shared images. If you don't want your pictures to go public, don't opt to share them through the site.)
Photo sharing site Flickr also recently rolled out photo editing abilities in partnership with Picnik. All Flickr users can access the basic editing options, and becoming a premium member unlocks more features. Both Picnik and Photoshop Express have some integrated functionality with other websites, like Facebook and Picasa.
Although the sites don't offer a lot in the way of restoration and delicate touchups, both Photoshop Express and Flickr are good options for people who don't want to pay a lot for a program they'll use only to resize or crop their pictures.
Family Heirlooms | Photos
Friday, April 11, 2008 3:46:53 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Free Photo Scanning for Social Networkers
Posted by Allison
It's a Valentine's Day gift for family history lovers: Through Feb. 29, ScanMyPhotos.com. is offering free scanning of up to 1,000 4x6-inch photos—all you'll pay is the $19.95 shipping fee (compared to the regular price of $49.95). What's the catch? The offer is open only to members of several major social networking sites: Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and Flickr (a photo-sharing network). You also have to be a US resident, and the offer's limited to one freebie per person or address. In exchange, ScanMyPhotos.com. asks that you post a review of its service. See the press release for further details. if you've been thinking about testing the social networking waters but haven't taken the plunge, here's a good incentive.
Family Heirlooms | Historic preservation
Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:02:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A Photo Doctor That Makes House Calls
Posted by Allison
On this blog and in our January 2008 issue, we introduced you to some batch photo-scanning services that will quickly and affordably digitize hundreds and even thousands of family photos. The drawback with really old photographs, of course, is you'd have to let those irreplaceable images of your possession. A Seattle company has the remedy to that dilemma: Memeria will actually bring a high-volume scanner to your house and scan your photos on site—accomplishing in a couple of hours what might take you weeks or months to do on your home scanner, says Memeria president Anthony Miller. "This gives people more time to work on their scrapbooks and genealogy instead of scanning." The service costs 25 cents per photo, with minimum orders ranging from $50 to $200. Memeria currently serves only the Seattle area, but plans to expand. If you live nearby and are considering a photo digitization project, give the service a look.
Family Heirlooms
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:05:58 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, November 15, 2007
Project to send data to the moon
Posted by Grace
Archivists and tech guys alike recommend using offsite data backup when creating copies of important records. But a new preservation project's storage location takes the cake.
For a donation of $10, Lunar Legacy will send your story and photo to the moon. That's right, they will send pictures of your dog, your Nana or the Grand Canyon to the celestial body orbiting the earth.
The project is backed by the Google Lunar X Prize, which challenges private companies to send a robot rover to the moon. A $20 million prize will go to the first team to complete a set of objectives including sending video, images and data back to Earth by the end of 2012.
The photos and messages uploaded to www.lunarlegacy.org will be stored on every vehicle that attempts to make the voyage. You can see what people have uploaded so far by clicking here.
Family Heirlooms | Genealogy fun
Thursday, November 15, 2007 6:34:57 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Monday, November 12, 2007
World Vital Records Offers Digitization Services
Posted by Diane
The subscription genealogy database site World Vital Records has expanded its services to include digitally preserving your family mementos. Its new Preservation Packages include - converting 8mm, 16mm, miniDVs and VHS tapes to DVD
- scanning photos and documents
- digitizing slides and negatives
- storing digitized images on a secure server
In a World Vital Records user panel survey, 91 percent of members said they were concerned about preserving photos, videos, and/or documents. Exact pricing isn’t available; Word Vital Records says rates are 50 to 70 percent less than retail value. Call the company toll-free (888) 377-0588 for details. For information on several batch photo-scanning services and do-it-yourself tips, see the January 2008 Family Tree Magazine and our blog post.
Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Web Sites
Monday, November 12, 2007 10:53:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Friday, November 02, 2007
History of the Toothpick
Posted by Grace
Here's one before the weekend: A fascinating brief history of the toothpick.
Charles Forster, inspired by the hand-carved picks used by Brazilians, saw huge potential in mass-producing wooden toothpicks in the US. He got Boston inventor Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant to create a machine that was capable of producing millions of toothpicks a day by 1870.
The real genius was in Forster's marketing campaign: One of his ploys was to have Harvard men eat at restaurants and demand a toothpick after their meal. They'd make a fuss when none was available, and when the toothpick salesmen came around a few days later, the restaurant managers bought in.
To read the article, click here.
(The Slate article is a kind of condensed version of Henry Petroski's book The Toothpick: Technology and Culture, which can be bought on Amazon.)
Image taken by C R.
Family Heirlooms | Social History
Friday, November 02, 2007 8:36:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Immortalize Yourself Online
Posted by Diane
If you’re like most of us, you think your life story is nothing special. You know what? Your ancestors thought the same thing of themselves, yet 100 or 300 years later, here you are, doggedly seeking every last detail about their lives. Maybe your story isn’t the next New York Times bestseller, but one day your descendants will find it fascinating. Posting it permanently online is one way to make sure they can get a hold of it (and read your version of events). That's the idea behind StoryofMyLife.com, a beta Web site from Eravita, Inc. Once you register, you write a story and upload your main photo. You can add to the story, add multimedia files and keep an online journal. Anyone can view your pages unless you make them private or place them in a “time capsule” for later release. Family members’ stories are linked. StoryofMyLife.com is free for active accounts. After six months of inactivity, the site spends three months attempting to contact the account manager for the $1-per-megabyte “Forever Space" fee. Without payment, the story may be removed. A user can purchase Forever Space at any time, though, to avoid posthumously sticking relatives with the decision to pay up or doom his opus to deletion. The nonprofit Story of My Life Foundation gets part of the proceeds to use for keeping stories accessible and technologically current, and making grants to gather stories of people otherwise unable to tell them.
Family Heirlooms | Genealogy Web Sites
Wednesday, August 08, 2007 1:40:32 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, June 04, 2007 |