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!
Thanksgiving Special: What’s on your table?
Thanksgiving Day is only a few weeks away and Americans are planning how to celebrate this important family holiday.
MyHeritage is also preparing holiday-related posts - and some surprises - so stay tuned during November.
A national holiday, Thanksgiving is observed in the United States - and worldwide wherever North American expats reside - on the fourth Thursday of November.
Every immigrant group to the US has also adopted the special day, which crosses all ethnic and religious lines.
"Turkey day" is a universal and delicious event, while the four-day holiday weekend also features football (not soccer!) games, major shopping days and great sales.
Thanksgiving Day's centerpiece is the lovingly-prepared feast on our tables, which we share with family and friends. People begin to plan holiday menus very early. Therefore, we invite the MyHeritage community to participate in our poll below:
Continue reading "Thanksgiving Special: What’s on your table?" »
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" »
MyHeritage.com: Now in Afrikaans!
Afrikaans is spoken in South Africa and Namibia
That’s correct, yet another language has been added to MyHeritage.com! From today, your family site can now be displayed in 38 languages thanks to the addition of Afrikaans.
This follows the recent introduction of Latvian to our language options, which was very well received by our Latvian community.
There are some 20 million Afrikaans speakers and we are pleased to provide MyHeritage.com and Family Tree Builder software to that large community.
Afrikaans is spoken primarily in South Africa and Namibia and has a considerable Dutch influence. The language was brought to the Cape by Protestant settlers in the 17th century and has had sustained popularity since. Afrikaans can also be used as an adjective; relating to the Afrikaner people and their culture.
We hope that you and your family will find this new language useful.
Continue reading "MyHeritage.com: Now in Afrikaans!" »
Happy World Population Day
Today is annual United Nations World Population Day.
In the next few months the world’s population will pass 7 Billion for the first time. (Here's a population clock to keep track)
This is an amazing 2 Billion new people since 1987 and a doubling of world population since 1968!
The world’s population first reached 1 Billion around 200 years ago.
To understand how much the world we live in has changed compared to the world of our ancestors at that time, you absolutely have to watch the below video produced by the BBC.
It’s less than 5 Minutes but is a magical look into the changes in standard of living across the world.
Continue reading "Happy World Population Day" »
Researching your Polish Family History
According to the U.S. 2000 Census, roughly 9 million people claim Polish descent -- with the largest Polish populations in New York (986,141), Illinois (932,996), Michigan (854,844), Pennsylvania (824,146), and New Jersey (576,473) (http://factfinder.census.gov).
The Polish American immigrant experience is a compelling one -- from around 1608, when Polish immigrants first appear in the Jamestown, Virgina archives to later waves of immigrations leading up until the Cold War and beyond.
While some claim Poles arrived on Viking ships exploring the New World before 1600, to date there hasn't been any evidence to support such claims. Records indicate the first appearance of Poles in America as early as 1608, when they were recruited to the colonies to establish artisan industries. See Wikipedia, Polish American, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_American (describing the history of Polish Americans) (as of May 28, 2011).
Continue reading "Researching your Polish Family History" »
Interview Series: Kay Radford, Research Centre Manager Central Coast Family History Society Inc
The Central Coast of NSW stretches from the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, Australia. It is an area with a history of shipbuilding and early settlement and most popular for its orange orchards in the past.
In this interview we meet with Kay Radford, Research Centre Manager and Vice President of the Central Coast Family History Society Inc.
Tell us a bit about yourself Kay - how you got into family history research, why you are so heavily involved with it now etc.
Mapping God’s Genealogy?
Every now and then someone goes and constructs a really unique family tree, and this is what's happened over at soulliberty.com.
Robert Rouse, from the site, has published a family tree for God, showing a bloodline from Adam and Eve through to Noah, King David, and right through to Jesus.
Continue reading "Mapping God’s Genealogy?" »
Grandson’s namesake sparks family history quest…Scott’s story
Scott has been with MyHeritage.com now for quite a few years. In researching his family history, he has come across a number of amazing stories. His genealogy blog "Onward to Our Past" is focused on Bohemia, the Czech community of Cleveland, Cornwall in the UK, Italy and Italian immigration. He shares a few of his stories with us here.
The author with his grandsons. Bottom fellow is he who started it all, William.
I am Scott Phillips, an avid genealogist and family historian. I have always been interested in my family roots and ties since childhood. I have wonderful memories of gathering with my extended family and trying to understand the differences between my Cornish-rooted family and my Bohemian family members. Always wondered why I love eating pasty and Knedliky so much! Of course, living with my grandmother who often spoke Czech helped a lot to instill in me a wonder for where we all came from.
About two years ago my son came to my wife and me and informed us that we were going to be grandparents again. The icing on this cake was that if it was a boy, he and his wife had decided to name him William after my father. Since my father had passed away the year before, I decided to ‘just write a couple paragraphs’ about my new grandson’s namesake for him. Little did I know how badly the genealogy bug would grab a hold of me! As I have seen written and is certainly true of me: “I used to have a life, then I discovered genealogy”.
Continue reading "Grandson’s namesake sparks family history quest…Scott’s story" »
Awkward Family Photos?
In a week that's seen some fantastic family photography, it's worth remembering that not all shots come out so well.
The website, awkwardfamilyphotos.com, is a haven for all of the less-aesthetically-pleasing shots we occasionally take as families. Whereas in the past, these lingered at the bottom of drawers and in boxes in the closet, now they can be shared for all the world to see.
We've put a few examples down below. If you have any to share, it's time to get yourself over to the awkward family photos site!
Continue reading "Awkward Family Photos?" »
MyHeritage.com on Facebook
Recent posts
- Whitney Houston: An inherited gift
- WDYTYA: Marisa Tomei’s odyssey
- Family history: Before it’s too late!
- Lord of the Rings: A family tree
Recent comments
- Renate on Whitney Houston: An inherited gift
- lizzie kjældgaard on Thanks! Gracias! Merci! Faleminderit! Gracies! Kiitos! Dankjewel! Multumesc!
- villava on Not Smith and Jones – Rare British Surnames On The Cusp Of Extinction
- karen ellison on Family history: Before it’s too late!
Categories
- african-american family history
- API
- archives
- Ask a Genealogist
- Australia
- canada
- Celebrity Trees
- Competitions
- Conferences
- Did you know?
- education
- Events
- Families Around the World
- Family
- family history
- genealogy
- Health
- history
- holidays
- Humor
- india
- Informative series
- Inside MyHeritage
- Internationally Speaking
- Interview Series
- Ireland
- Italy
- jobs
- Just for fun
- Latin American Family History
- Libraries
- Links We Like
- Love Letters
- miitary records
- MyHeritage in the press
- MyHeritage News
- New Zealand
- news
- newspapers
- photographs
- podcast
- Polish Family History
- poll series
- press releases
- product announcements
- research
- research tools
- Revisit the Past
- science
- Survey
- technology
- television
- Translations
- UK
- uncategorized
- US
- user stories
- videocast
- Volunteers
- War
- Weddings
- who do you think you are
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- March 2008
- December 2007
- August 2007
- May 2007
- March 2007
- January 2007