WDYTYA: Marisa Tomei’s odyssey
Following the large audience for the third-season premiere of the US-version of Who Do You Think You Are? - starring Martin Sheen - the second episode focused on Marisa Tomei.
Tomei's story concerned her murdered great-grandfather, and the false belief held by her family about the event's circumstances.
Her odyssey takes her from Brooklyn to Tuscany, Elba, Castiglioncello and Lucca to find the truth about the event, and her mother's BIANCHI and CANOVARO families. Her father, Gary, had already done extensive research on the TOMEI family tree.
Continue reading "WDYTYA: Marisa Tomei’s odyssey" »
Family history: Before it’s too late!
Today I read a moving article in The Guardian - “Top five regrets of the dying." It made me wonder about my own life. The first thing that came to mind was my family history project.
The article is based on Australian nurse Bronnie Ware, who spent several years working in hospice care with patients in the last few months of their lives. She included the patients' comments in a blog, Inspiration and Chai and authored a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
Among the common regrets:
- I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected.
- I wish I had not worked so hard. Continue reading "Family history: Before it’s too late!" »
RootsTech 2012: Day two highlights
It was another exciting day at RootsTech. The MyHeritage booth was very busy all day, as the team told those who stopped by how MyHeritage and World Vital Records can help advance their research. Visitors were a mix of those new to MyHeritage, along with those who were already members.
Schelly, Steve Morse and Mark
A large audience heard Dave Barney of Google present the many uses of Google for genealogy. He demonstrated various features, ranging from Google Maps and how to pinpoint your ancestors on a street level view map and how to zoom in to their historic homes, churches and more to show your family’s living history. He shared a photo of the Swedish church – still standing - where his ancestors were married more than two centuries ago. The building was shown in Google street view.
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WDYTYA: An interview with Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow in the episode on her own family (Season 1, Episode 3)
Lisa Kudrow, executive producer of the US version of “Who Do You Think You Are?” was the guest for a group phone interview on Friday, January 27.
I was honored to participate in the call which focused on the show’s new season, which begins at 8pm, Friday, February 3, on NBC.
This year"s celebs are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.
Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, my own questions could not be answered. However, the others asked some great questions, and Lisa responded in kind (see below).
Other geneabloggers on the call were Thomas MacEntee, Lisa Louise Cooke, Angela Walton-Raji, Kathryn Lake Hogan and Diane Haddad, along with newspaper and entertainment industry magazine writers.
Here are some questions and Lisa’s responses.
Q: What advice do you have for people who become frustrated or stuck in their research?
Lisa: There doesn’t have to ever be an end. That's what makes it such a great hobby. I think there's always research you can do on different branches, different cousins and you go back. And then it's not just names and dates. Then you start looking at where they were living, what was happening there at that time, you start looking at historical documents. And you can maybe draw some conclusions or guesses about what was motivating some of their choices in life.
Continue reading "WDYTYA: An interview with Lisa Kudrow" »
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.
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Valentine’s Day: Share your love stories
Valentine's Day is 14 days away and millions of couples around the world prepare for the most romantic day in the year.
People also recall how it was celebrated generations ago. They may remember incredible and moving love stories of their own or of their ancestors.
We have all heard the love stories of our grandparents, great-grandparents or other ancestors. These may include a love that was separated or difficult due to distance, historical events, family disagreements or other reasons.
Even though times were much harder, somehow those impossible loves won out, the couple married and their love story lasted until contemporary times.
When I was younger, it was quite an opportunity to listen to some cringe-worthy love stories from my parents. The experience was more of a learning opportunity (as in a whistle-stop tour of how not to let a lady know about your affections).
Continue reading "Valentine’s Day: Share your love stories" »
Poll: Have you discovered an ancestral home?
Census records are a fantastic tool.
However, the details in the records leave much to the imagination. That is - of course - until you investigate the address listed on the census entry.
It's the part of the puzzle that brings context to the lives of our ancestors. The type of house, the bedroom-to-inhabitant ratio, the local area and surrounding industry - these are all fascinating elements that help us visualise our ancestors' lives.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a not-too-distant home that was shared among a few generations on my maternal side. Lavish, it wasn't; however, the insight into their lifestyle was a humbling experience.
Let us know in the poll below if you've visited any ancestral homes. Alternatively, please leave a comment below.
Continue reading "Poll: Have you discovered an ancestral home?" »
One blogger’s story: Denielle Radcliff Koch
There are more than 2,000 genealogy blogs – known as geneablogs - in cyberspace, and more appear every day.
While some focus on a researcher’s own family, or specialize in a certain country, town or ethnicity, others provide assistance to researchers via tips and tricks of the trade.
Blogger Denielle Radcliff Koch, 29, of North Carolina, fits into several categories with two working blogs and another in planning.
Her mother always told stories about her family. In her teens, Denielle dabbled in genealogy by just talking to relatives. She began seriously researching when her great-grandmother passed away soon after her daughter’s birth.
“Once I got going, I was hooked.”
When she first began researching, her daughter was a colicky baby and Denielle and her husband were on a very tight budget. She couldn’t afford to pay for genealogy website subscriptions. Library visits with the baby weren’t in the cards, either.
“So I started searching the internet to see what I could find for free. I was surprised to find that there’s actually a lot of stuff out there. “
Continue reading "One blogger’s story: Denielle Radcliff Koch" »
MyHeritage During 2011
With the holidays over and 2012 in full swing, we’re taking a look back at the big news from MyHeritage in 2011.
For those who don’t remember what happened over the past 12 months - there were many major announcements – we’ve prepared a summary of the events:
25 January: Improvement to Smart Matches:
In January, MyHeritage released many changes to our market-leading Smart Matches technology. This helped make the process of discovering new family members - past and present - easier than ever before.
9 February: MyHeritage in 100 seconds
In February, we released a 100-second video demonstrating how MyHeritage works. Although meant to be a quick intro for those new to MyHeritage.com, even long-time users wrote to say it helped them learn about new features.
Continue reading "MyHeritage During 2011" »
Steven Tyler: A fascinating family tree past and present
On January 2, Steven Tyler - legendary front man of rock-and-roll band Aerosmith - announced his engagement to girlfriend, Erin Brady.
Tyler’s professional success is known to many. Aerosmith has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, while American Idol, on which he is a judge, is the top-rated American television show.
Not as well known are the details of his amazingly diverse heritage, the rich history of musicians among his ancestors or the complex structure of his current family including his partners (ex and current) and his children.
To kick things off, we’ve pulled together Tyler’s family tree.
Click on the image below (or HERE) to be taken to the actual family tree on MyHeritage.
Click to see the tree
As part of our research on Tyler’s family, we found some other fascinating information.
Continue reading "Steven Tyler: A fascinating family tree past and present" »
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