Ellis Island: 57 years later
On November 29 - 57 years ago- the greatest monument to a proud history of American immigration was closed. I am talking, of course, about Ellis Island.
The Great Hall
During a 2008 trip to New York, I visited Ellis Island (I’m from the UK) with my family.
Many visitors to New York take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty for that iconic photograph. Fortunately, we had the foresight to remain on the ferry and visit Ellis Island. It was worth it.
Although the architecture of the Main Building (now the Immigration Museum) does hint that Ellis Island comprises an important part of American history, it isn’t until one enters The Great Hall that you realise the sheer number of immigrants that Ellis Island handled. It is very substantial - to anyone’s eyes! Continue reading "Ellis Island: 57 years later" »
TV Families: Power to create, evoke memories
Television programming has always been replete with shows about family.
Whether it was "Leave It To Beaver," "The Cosby Show," "The Brady Bunch" or one of many other sitcoms, past or present, that revolve around family life, the wonderful thing about those shows is how they represented the society and culture of the time.
When I was growing up, a favourite TV family were the Keatons of Family Ties.
I'm not sure why I liked them more than the others - perhaps they fit in better with my middle class understanding of the world in which I grew up - but watching that show was a weekly pleasure for many years.
Continue reading "TV Families: Power to create, evoke memories" »
Best gift for the holidays: Family history
Thinking about a good gift for that special family member? Don’t wait too long as the holidays are just around the corner.
December is a month of wonderful worldwide holidays. Christians celebrate Christmas (December 25), Jews celebrate Chanukah (December 21), and there is also the African-American festival of Kwanzaa (December 26).
Although there are many gift options out there, family history can be an unforgettable present.
At MyHeritage, you can create – for free - your own family tree design and then order a professional print delivered directly to your home or to a relative anywhere on the globe. Surprise them! To learn more about this service, click here Continue reading "Best gift for the holidays: Family history" »
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving
to our MyHeritage family!
Enjoy the holiday with your family
Remember to share your family history,
ask questions and take photos of the festivities!
MyHeritage acquires FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com!
It is with great pleasure that we announce our acquisition of FamilyLink.com, Inc., the Utah-based company that operates the Websites FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com.
This is our seventh and largest acquisition so far and the two Websites are joining the MyHeritage family. The exciting news was released on Techcrunch and announced by us in a press release that you can read here. We will soon be sending a personal email to our users about it.
Continue reading "MyHeritage acquires FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com!" »
Thanksgiving: Picture the festivities!
Where has the year gone?
Supermarkets in the US are jammed with shoppers looking for that perfect turkey and gathering all the ingredients for side dishes and traditional desserts.
There are only a few days left until entire neighborhoods and apartment buildings are filled with the fragrance of roasting turkeys.
The MyHeritage team encourages everyone to record this holiday - and all family holidays, of course - in photographs for posterity. To help this project along, we’re giving away two Premium subscriptions for the best photo in each of two categories: Old family photos of Thanksgiving past and contemporary photos of this year’s festivities.
Continue reading "Thanksgiving: Picture the festivities!" »
“Kindness” Gene Discovered
Photo: www.latexsens.com
It is always interesting to find studies like these.
It seems that we are increasingly keen to understand how humans act and how we interact with our family, our friends, strangers and even our animals.
We stumbled upon an interesting article on Yahoo News , which says that scientists at the University of Oregon have found that "kindness" could be caused by certain genetic traits and that those traits are recognizable to outsiders at a glance.
"Our findings suggest even slight genetic variation may have tangible impact on people's behavior, and that these behavioral differences are quickly noticed by others," said lead author Aleksandr Kogan, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto.
The study observed a group of people who had different types of genes (G, AA, AG, GG) in the rs53576 DNA sequence of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). This is interesting as oxytocin is sometimes called the “love hormone” as it promotes closer links with other people and other social behaviours.
Continue reading "“Kindness” Gene Discovered" »
Genealogy News – North America – 20 November 2011
Today’s edition includes map resources (including Google Earth), genealogy classes covering diverse topics, information on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a Maryland newspaper digitization project, easing adoptees’ efforts to obtain their original birth certificates, and the start date for the new US season of "Who Do You Think You Are?".
ON THE MAP
The New England Historical and Genealogical Society provided more major map collection resources:
- The Boston Atlas
- The Harvard Map Collection
- The Yale Map Collection
- Historic USGS maps of New England and New York on the University of New Hampshire Library website
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery maps
- David Rumsey Map Collection
- Library of Congress Map Collections
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas
- Historic Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project
- Historic Cities
GOOGLE EARTH CAN HELP YOU
Continue reading "Genealogy News – North America – 20 November 2011" »
One Word: Describe family history
Calling all word lovers - or those who love their thesaurus (or is that thesauri?).
Somebody once said that using five words - when one will suffice - is the mark of a verbose character. There is an inherent difficulty in selecting one word to reflect a range of emotions and, as I'm sure you'll know, genealogy elicits many such emotions.
In that vein: What's one word that tells the MyHeritage team how you feel about family history or genealogy?
Describe the emotion - in one word - for when you discover an elusive new fact about an ancestor. Continue reading "One Word: Describe family history" »
Thanksgiving Day: Giving thanks
In our second special post for Thanksgiving Day we discuss what we’re thankful for at this holiday.
Our MyHeritage team wants to know what you – our readers – are thankful for at this time of year.
Families appreciate their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Is there a special person who has made a difference in your life? Tell us about him or her in the comments below.
Genealogists appreciate all those resources that provide solid-gold nuggets of data that help to break through our brick wall problems. What new resources have provided you with interesting discoveries this year?
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Participate in our survey below:
More than 350 readers responded to last week's "What's on your Thanksgiving table?" survey. The top table choices were turkey (20%), stuffing/dressing (16%), sweet potatoes/yams (16%) and pumpkin pie (14.5%). Also interesting were results of the "other" category: Corn pudding/casserole, string beans, cranberry sauce (of course!), tofurkey (turkey made from tofu), crescent rolls, apple pie, pecan pie, oyster dressing and collard greens. The best reply:
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