UK: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Sixty years ago today, Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, and her Diamond Jubilee takes place during 2012.
Although she came to the throne on this day in 1952, her coronation took place on June 2, 1953.
Queen Elizabeth II is the male-line great-granddaughter of Edward VII, who inherited the crown from his mother, Queen Victoria. His father, Victoria's consort, was Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Queen Elizabeth is a patrilineal descendant of Albert's family, the German House of Wettin. This princely house claims other notables, such as King Albert II of Belgium and former King Simeon II of Bulgaria.
Elizabeth's male-line ancestry goes back to Conrad the Greatof Meissen; see Patrilineal descent of Elizabeth II.
Through Victoria - and several of her great-great-grandparents, Elizabeth is directly descended from many British royals:
Continue reading "UK: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee" »
RootsTech 2012: Day one highlights
MyHeritage’s experience at RootsTech has been a success, from setup to live hangouts and a very busy booth on the first day.
MyHeritage booth at RootsTech, before the conference began
The team began setting up Wednesday afternoon. Our booth is a real standout with double arches of balloons in the MyHeritage logo colors. Everyone knows where our booth is located as the colorful balloons fly high above the exhibit floor.
MyHeritage Super Search
Today, the opening day, our CEO/founder Gilad Japhet demonstrated the new MyHeritage Super Search technology. The new online research system greatly expands search functionality and takes into account user errors, common name variations, and other important details which, in the past, have not been included in most ancestral searches. There are many options to filter results by collections, via additional refining, advanced search and filtering capabilities as demonstrated in his presentation. This exciting new research system is still under development.
Continue reading "RootsTech 2012: Day one highlights" »
Black History Month: An important observance
The history of the African diaspora in a number of countries is celebrated during Black History Month.
In the US and Canada, it has been observed during February since 1976. In the UK, it is observed during October. It is also known as African-American History Month.
Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week so that African American history would be considered more significant within American history. According to historian John Hope Franklin, Woodson expressed hope that Negro History Week would outlive its usefulness.
The observance is meant to promote awareness of African American history. It is widely observed through local activities, at museums, at libraries and with television documentaries.
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Genealogy Conferences: Why I like them!
In 2011, I was happy to attend many genealogy conferences.
WDYTYA Live! Family History Fair (London, UK)
These events included the annual events of the National Genealogical Society (Charleston, South Carolina), Southern California Genealogical Jamboree (Burbank, California), IAJGS International Jewish Genealogy Conference (Washington, DC) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (Springfield, Illinois).
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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" »
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" »
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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News from MyHeritage Australia – 16 November 2011
This is a guest post by Shauna Hicks.
Shauna is a professional genealogist, former archivist and librarian who has been researching her own family history since 1977.
She is also a MyHeritage member.
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Genealogists for Families
The Genealogists for Families project established by Brisbane genealogist Judy Webster in October, is big news in Australian genealogy circles.
Since first gaining popularity in Australia, genealogists from around the world have joined the project and are helping to further publicise it.
What’s it all about? In a nutshell, a team of genealogists and their families have joined together to help families in low-income areas. The project slogan is We care about families (past, present and future).
Continue reading "News from MyHeritage Australia – 16 November 2011" »
MyHeritage: Creating trees at family history fair
The first-ever World Festival showcasing diverse Jewish communities around the world and their unique traditions took place in the Mediterranean seaside resort city of Netanya – often called the Israeli Riviera.
Thousands of families flocked to the three-day festival from Sunday-Tuesday, 16-18 October. The timing was significant as it took place during Sukkot – the Feast of Booths – and a holiday of festivals took place throughout the country.
The festival especially attracted young families looking for a free, fun outing during the national holiday. More than 20 countries - including Canada, Ethiopia, Slovakia, Peru, Ukraine, South Africa, France, United States, Bulgaria, Argentina and Finland, among others - hosted traditional booths and displayed a hands-on approach to their individual ways of celebrating .The holiday features the common tradition of living in temporary structures during the week-long harvest holiday.
Continue reading "MyHeritage: Creating trees at family history fair" »
Halloween: Family photo winners
We love running competitions at MyHeritage, and Halloween provided an excellent opportunity to see what our community created.
It's a chance for us to see how creative our community can be and - in the case of this week's competition - be privy to some hilarious family Halloween photos. Ghoulish, disturbing, confusing and downright terrifying - you name it, we've seen them all! See the slide show here:
We know everyone wanted to be one of the lucky three - who will now enjoy excellent features including enhanced Smart Matches™ and Timeline features.
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