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?" »
MyHeritage.com: Making reunions happen!
Cornelius Francis Staps, father of Anna and Ronald
MyHeritage is all about reuniting families, so we were delighted to participate in the recent meeting of Ronald van der Voort (51) and his half-sister Anneliese (known as Anna) (70).
Ronald’s father - Cornelius Franziscus Staps – was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, although his paternal ancestors were from the Netherlands. Cornelius’ marriage to a German woman, Anna Baum, produced a daughter, Anneliese.
After the marriage dissolved, he returned to the Netherlands and left his daughter with his former wife. He hoped that Anna would visit him, although that was wishful thinking – he never saw her again. In fact, he went to Germany several times in attempts to find her, but those efforts were in vain.
Cornelius’ son Ronald, born in the Netherlands, grew up longing for his sister. Following the death of his father, Ronald began searching again. He looked for years with no success; his sister had seemingly disappeared.
Even popular TV shows couldn’t help him. The only lead during this entire time was a small piece of paper given to Ronald by a sympathetic town hall employee. The paper bore only the name of Anna’s step-father. Although searches for that name were attempted, nothing was found.
Anna grew up with her mother after her parents’ marriage ended. All she knew was her father’s name and that he was German. She lived in her hometown until her teens.
During her teens, Anna decided to study in the UK as part of a school program. When she applied for her passport, an official told her that she could not obtain a German passport because her father was, in fact, Dutch. That was quite a surprise!
In England, Anna found her true love. They married and moved to New Zealand where – nearly 50 years later – they still live. Unknown to her, Ronald lived 11,000 miles away in the Netherlands and was trying to find his sister. Continue reading "MyHeritage.com: Making reunions happen!" »
Success Story: Meredith Sellers
Abraham's and Shifra's family chart display
When our MyHeritage team attended the recent Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference in Springfield, Illinois, we met Meredith Sellers of Champaign, Illinois.
Meredith is married, in her 20s and is a genealogy and Family History Center consultant. She had a nice chat with our Chief Genealogist Daniel Horowitz about her personal research success story and the family reunion she organized. Here is her story:
Meredith's experience with MyHeritage and charts
Meredith had read about MyHeritage on various genealogy blogs long before her family reunion, and while she had quickly and easily uploaded a GEDCOM file of her family tree, she had not explored the printing functionality at MyHeritage.
"As I brainstormed the best way to display over 300 family members in an easily understandable graphic format, I discovered MyHeritage's descendant fan chart," says Meredith.
She discovered that the chart-making interface synched directly with her existing GEDCOM data which allowed her to directly import names and dates. She was also able to change various aspects, such as background color, graphics and ornamental frame.
Continue reading "Success Story: Meredith Sellers" »
MyHeritage @ National Family History Fair, Newcastle 2011
This weekend, MyHeritage’s UK Representatives Laurence Harris and James Sanderson will be making their way to Newcastle for the National Family History Fair 2011.
Running from 10 am until 4pm this Saturday, we intend to meet with as many people as possible and demonstrate a range of MyHeritage products. For those who are considering moving from a free MyHeritage.com family site to a Premium or PremiumPlus account, we will be offering 20% discount coupons throughout the day!
Laurence Harris, Head of MyHeritage Genealogy (UK) is giving one of three talks at the fair alongside celebrated genealogist Nick Barratt and Dr William Roulston, an expert in Irish Ancestry. Laurence’s talk is entitled ‘Collaborative Genealogy, Family Networks & Smart Research’ and promises to give an excellent overview of how genealogists can work collaboratively using computational techniques, worth watching if you want to revolutionise your research techniques - Laurence will be speaking at 2.45 pm.
Laurence and myself are thoroughly looking forward to talking with MyHeritage users, so please come and say hello if you have time. The stall will be manned throughout the day.
The event promises to be very busy and will house over 40 exhibitors. The Venue (Tyne Suite, Newcastle Central Premier Inn) is in the City Centre and has excellent transport links, so there really is no excuse. See you there!
Video: Slaves & Free People of Color in West Virginia
In this thought-provoking video, Greg Carroll of the West Virginia State Archives discusses the history of slaves and free people of color in West Virginia from 1800-1860.
In addition to informing viewers as to what genealogical research materials are available, Carroll talks of a palpable lack of certain types of information and the need to collect further information. In particular, the oral histories of these people are lacking.
This video also provides some background to the plight of these West Virginians. Well worth a watch.
Facebook competition results: ‘I love genealogy because…’
Don't say we never give anything away at MyHeritage.com as this week's Facebook competition has seen three of the best entries win a free premium account subscription.
We know everyone is keen to be part of the lucky three - who will now be enjoying fantastic features including enhanced Smart Matches™ and Timeline features - so we ought now to reveal the winners, judged by the MyHeritage team.
We asked all our Facebook fans to tell us just why they loved genealogy in the form, "I love genealogy because...", we then waited and watched the entries flood in until we lost count completely.
We had entries that were both inspiring and heart-warming and others that were a little strange, even disturbing. After much careful deliberation though, we can reveal that the winning entries* from over 120 are as follows (Author in bold):
Linda Pentland
"I love genealogy because...I can put meat on the bones of the skeletons that are rattling about our cupboards!!"
Continue reading "Facebook competition results: ‘I love genealogy because…’" »
MyHeritage.com Welcomes Sara, our Swedish Community Manager!
Sara, our new Swedish Community Manager
Sara has just joined the MyHeritage team and has been given the task of engaging with our 300,000 Swedish users. In addition, she now has her very own MyHeritage Swedish blog to post daily about all the genealogical happenings in Sweden.
Sara, in her first post, talks about her fascinating family history and how she tracked down her uncle in an otherwise baffling situation. Below is a summary of her story, translated from Swedish.
Her maternal line originates from the East coast of Sweden going as far back as the 1700s. However, her paternal heritage is really rather fascinating. Following the Second World War, both of her grandparents emigrated to Sweden.
Her Grandfather Fransesco came from Taranto in Southern Italy and he met Grandma Marietta when she emigrated from Finland. They lived in Sweden together and bore Sara’s father in 1958. A few years later, her grandfather died leaving her father to be raised without a father or siblings. Continue reading "MyHeritage.com Welcomes Sara, our Swedish Community Manager!" »
Building your family tree? It could save your life.
A comprehensive family tree can ‘trump’ genetic testing for hereditary disease, say researchers.
Compiling or preparing an accurate family medical history appears to be of immense value in predicting family health risks, say researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.... And there I was, mocking my granny for believing in such piffle and pseudoscience.
In the study, detailed family histories were taken of 44 individuals, nine of whom had a family history of colon cancer. Quite astonishingly, a genetic swab test deemed all nine participants were low-risk, although further tests showed that five of the nine carried a gene mutation linked to the cancer.
I’m sure we all have a vague idea of our own family risk factors, but perhaps investing some time to compile a comprehensive record may be a worthwhile move. Obviously, it is best to span more than a couple of generations, which may be time-consuming but think of the benefits!
Continue reading "Building your family tree? It could save your life." »
Tracing Your Irish Ancestry
From 1800 to 1922 the UK was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. So, for a great deal of the period of interest to genealogists, the two islands were part of the same country.
The consequence of this is that there are no official records of migration, because the Irish in Britain during that time were not technically immigrants. As a result, the British archives contain much more material of Irish interest.
There are a lot of similarities between the record systems of Britain and Ireland, particularly:
- The formats of the various civil registration records
- Census-taking practice
- Probate for wills
- Before census and civil registration, parish records are the only direct sources of family information for the majority of the population.
There are four categories of Irish records that are relevant to almost everyone researching their Irish ancestors: civil records, census records, church records and property records.
There are also fascinating tales of family history, passed down orally through the generations, which can be found in most families. Irish Family History is full of myths and legends. These stories may be curious, but always interesting and sometimes historically valuable, perhaps grounded in fact and providing a peek into the past that might not be available through other means.
Continue reading "Tracing Your Irish Ancestry" »
In Celebration of Fathers: Father’s Day
Father’s Day is a worldwide event. It is a celebration of dad’s and granddad’s, fatherhood, and paternal bonds. Fifty-five countries celebrate Father’s Day every third Sunday in June. Father's day was believed to be first observed in 1910, conceived as a counterpart to the ever popularizing Mother’s day. Sonora Smart Dodd is credited with the concept, she felt father’s should be celebrated in equality with mothers. Her father was a Civil War veteran, a hero, and a widow who raised his six children alone.
Continue reading "In Celebration of Fathers: Father’s Day" »
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