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" »
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.
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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" »
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. “
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Winners: Best genealogy advice?
For the past few days, we've been asking the MyHeritage communities on Facebook and Twitter to share their most valuable genealogy advice.
There were many entries from around the globe, addressing many aspects of genealogy; including research tips, good practice methods and handy hints for online research. Continue reading "Winners: Best genealogy advice?" »
What’s your best piece of genealogy advice?
Have a think about your best genealogy advice...
We all remember our first forays into the world of family research.
"Where do I look?", "How do I physically record the information?" and "What on earth is a GEDCOM file?" are just a few of the many questions that went through my mind when starting out.
Now, if somebody who had "been there and done that" could have provided some advice about the importance of citing sources or, indeed, the art of deciphering census handwriting, my research would have been significantly more efficient!
Over the next three days, we're going to be asking our learned community to share advice for budding or even experienced genealogists. Continue reading "What’s your best piece of genealogy advice?" »
Poll: How do you plan to pass down your family research?
Part of the beauty associated with family history research is that the researcher can always share findings with loved ones. Wouldn't it be a shame for that research to be lost to the generations?
Regardless of your age, I believe that we should all make some attempt to inform others about our research or, indeed, provide some guidance as to the order and direction of your general research. Speaking as head researcher for my family, I have spoken in some depth with my siblings about where my research is stored and how they can access the Sanderson MyHeritage tree.
So, now that I've given you some insight into my preparations, how do you plan to pass down your family research.
Let us know in the poll below and the comments section.
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).
Continue reading "Genealogy Conferences: Why I like them!" »
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