Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong!
This month marks the birthday of musical icon Louis Armstrong, known by his nicknames Satchmo or Pops. As an American jazz trumpeter and singer, he was one of the most influential jazz musicians in history.
Renowned for his stage presence and throaty voice as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extended well beyond jazz music, and his charismatic and heartfelt performances.
"He left an undying testimony to the human condition in the America of his time" - Wynton Marsalis
Armstrong was born August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Mary Albert Armstrong (1886–1942) and William Armstrong (1881–1922). He was the grandson of slaves raised on plantations. They spoke English rather than French and, like most slaves, had little idea of their origins. Louis himself grew up in a poverty-stricken rough neighborhood in New Orleans, known as “Back of Town.” When he was only a baby, his father left the family. From then until he was 5, he and his sister Beatrice were taken care of by their grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. At 5, he moved back to live with his mother, and only very rarely saw his father. Continue reading "Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong!" »

7 Bizarre Places to Find Family Heirlooms
My grandmother was recently searching for some old jewelry of her mother's that she had misplaced. She wanted to give it to me for my birthday to ensure it gets passed down to the next generation.
She opened all the closets, searched through kitchen pots, and even behind light switches! Where did she finally find it? In the pocket of a jacket she hadn’t worn in years.
Photos, jewelry, furniture or documents can all tell us a bit of our family history and are a link to our past. Continue reading "7 Bizarre Places to Find Family Heirlooms" »

5 Things Only Middle Children Will Understand
I was the second of four siblings. Growing up as middle children, my sister (the third child) and I often joked that we were considered double-stuff Oreo filling, and therefore we were the best part of the family.
But, let's face it, it's not easy being a middle child.
According to various studies, birth order in a family can have a great impact on a child's life.
Middle children often feel squeezed between older and younger siblings and have trouble finding their place in the family. There's even a syndrome named after us!
Here are five things that only middle children will understand:
1) Always wearing hand-me-down clothes. Continue reading "5 Things Only Middle Children Will Understand" »

Our Volunteers: A young genealogist’s Norwegian family history
Continuing our spotlight on volunteer translators, we introduce Torbjorn Wolden, a MyHeritage member from Norway, who has been helping to translate MyHeritage products into Norwegian for the five years.
A young genealogist, Torbjorn became interested in his family history in elementary school.
We did a project where we would make our own family tree (which I still have) and show it to the rest of the class. My grandparents also had a bygdebok (a local history book) for the parish, where all the farms and everyone who had lived there are listed, and I used to look at this and see how long my family had owned the farm and how long they had lived in the area.
Torbjorn has traced back his family history to the mid-1500s to the Trøndelag and Nordmøre regions in Norway. While most of his close family still lives in these regions, he has discovered distant relatives in Sweden; the US; Rotuma, Australia; Denmark and Switzerland. Continue reading "Our Volunteers: A young genealogist’s Norwegian family history" »

Our Stories: From Sweden to Australia, Part 3
Anna’s family journey to meet relatives in Australia continues. In this post, she discusses Oskar’s life, and looks at his decision to suddenly move to Australia.
The other day, David and I spoke about Oskar and his initial trip to Australia, the decisions that caused him to leave Sweden and what he may have encountered on the journey. There were still unanswered pieces that we can only speculate about. We have no information on his voyage, who he met or about his first journey.
What we do know, however, is that a significant event influenced Oskar’s decision to leave Sweden. An event that changed everything and added an entire branch to the family tree that would not otherwise have existed today.
Continue reading "Our Stories: From Sweden to Australia, Part 3" »

The Secret of Ereikoussa: The reunion
We recently wrote about the fascinating Secret of Ereikoussa, where the residents of a small Greek island risked their lives to save a Jewish tailor’s family from the Nazis during WWII.
In November 2013, Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and author Yvette Manessis Corporon contacted MyHeritage to ask for help in finding the descendants of the Jewish tailor - Savvas from Corfu, Greece - who had been hidden on Ereikoussa during the war. She had written a book inspired by her grandmother’s memories of the island, and the story of Savvas was an important part. For Yvette, the story was incomplete and she wanted to discover what happened to the family after the war.
MyHeritage accepted the challenge and embarked on a genealogical journey to uncover the mysteries of this long-kept secret. Starting with just five first names (Savvas, his three daughters Spera, Julia and Nina, and another child - Rosa) we were successful in locating descendants of the family in the U.S. and in Israel. Last month - at an official island ceremony - the families reunited to honor the island's residents for their courageous efforts. Continue reading "The Secret of Ereikoussa: The reunion" »

Look-alike Competition: Results
A few weeks ago we asked you to send in your look-alike photos and the response has been amazing!
We want to thank all of you who submitted. It was great to see uncanny family resemblances between the generations.
With so many photos submitted from around the world, it was really difficult to choose a winner.
But without further ado, we'd like to wish congratulations to Sheila Van Zant who sent in these incredible look-alike images produced 200 years apart!

Honorable John Brownlow First Viscount Tyrconnel, Knight of the Molt Honorable Order of the Bath (c.1740) and John Brownlow (born 1953)
Some of the photos made us do a double-take, including the following three runner-up entries:
Continue reading "Look-alike Competition: Results" »

New Feature: Global Name Translation™ Technology
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Global Name Translation™, a new technology unique to MyHeritage, to help break through those language barriers in the quest to uncover your past.
This innovation now makes it even easier to discover your global roots. The technology automatically translates names found in historical records and family trees from one language into another, at very high accuracy, generating all plausible translations, to facilitate matches between names in different languages. In addition, a manual search on MyHeritage's SuperSearch, will return results in other languages, automatically translated into the language of the query.
How can this benefit you? For example, perhaps your American family has Russian roots. Previously, you would have needed to search also in Russian to find all information available about your ancestors. Now you can search in English, and receive results in Russian, translated back into English for your convenience.
The technology covers given names and surnames and can tackle names previously encountered in the past, in addition to new names not seen before. It also utilizes extensive dictionaries built by MyHeritage to cover synonyms and nicknames.
Continue reading "New Feature: Global Name Translation™ Technology" »

Recreating Childhood Photos: 8 tips
Nothing brings back great memories than childhood photos. What better way to preserve those moments than by recreating some of them?
Recreating family photos doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s a great way to bring family together and reminisce about the past.
Here are some tips for recreating family photos: Continue reading "Recreating Childhood Photos: 8 tips" »

July 4th: 9 things you never knew
Happy 239th birthday, America!
Also known as Independence Day, Americans come together on July 4 to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the country’s birthday.
A great time to celebrate American heritage, it is also fun to share the holiday with families at barbecues, picnics, parades, fairs, firework displays and other family activities.
In honor of July 4, here are some fun facts for the day: Continue reading "July 4th: 9 things you never knew" »







