Genealogy Blog Family History

Family Holiday TraditionsPosted by Administrator on December 21st, 2009

If you think about it, the holidays are all about traditions. Traditions keep the whole thing going. Some families get together to watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Others gorge themselves on ham and football. Still others go hunting.

What traditions does your family carry on year after year to make the season special?

In our family, we make and deliver treats to our neighbors. Cookies, brownies, that kind of stuff. When I was a kid, we would dress up like ninjas, place the goodies on our neighbors’ porches, ring their doorbell, and then run like mad. We called it elfing. Maybe we’ll try out elfing when the kids are a little older. 

We re-enact the Nativity story by reading from the Book of Luke. Then we pull out a box which is decorated in brilliant silver wrapping paper- this is Christ’s present. On little slips of paper, we write what gifts we are going to give to Christ in the coming year. Then we insert those slips into the box. It’s our way of remembering what we are celebrating. Of course, then comes the presents and the food- oh yes, the food-, and the board games. There will likely be hours spent on video games and sledding and drinking hot cocoa. All of that. 

Make sure your holidays come with some kind of holiday. And make sure you spend it with those you love the most.

Ancestry.com proves Obama and Buffett CousinsPosted by Administrator on December 15th, 2009

When Warren Buffett was promoting Obama for the presidency, neither of them could have imagined that they were actually related.

That’s right. Reuters released a report today saying that Ancestry.com has found that President Obama and super-investor Warren Buffett are cousins… er, seventh cousins three times removed. Apparently, waaaaay back, their family trees meet at a 17th-century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall. The discovery was made by accident on Ancestry.com by researchers doing work on Obama’s roots. It is just another cool example of how Ancestry.com’s tools can help us learn unexpected things about our family histories.

Ironically, these same researchers found that Obama is also related to Dick Cheney. But something tells me they won’t be having a family reunion anytime soon.

More Family History CoolnessPosted by Administrator on December 3rd, 2009

I am fortunate to have parents who love family history. And even after over 30 years of hearing their stories about pilgrims and Civil War heroes, they still manage to bring up some that I’ve never heard before. I knew my great-grandfather was an outlaw and then an oil man in Southern CA (I guess the oil industry hasn’t changed much:). I knew my great-great-grandmother came as a pioneer from the Hawaiian islands to the desert of Northern Utah. I knew some of our forebears were among the passengers of the famous Mayflower. And still others of our ancestors were closely related to William Wallace of Braveheart fame. But this new goes farther back and may be cooler. 

According to some recent family history by my father, our family ties back to a line of Viking kings. Instantly, my head is swimming with images of men in horned helmets ransacking helpless villages and plundering all the food and loot they can find. At least they’re very manly- there is something undeniably manly about having the blood of Vikings flowing through your veins. And to be related to royalty is pretty good, too.

Then my dad dropped another one on us: we can trace our lineage back to Charlemagne- the Charlemagne. For those who snoozed through Ancient History 101, Charlemagne was the king of the Gauls who was known for his Solomon-like wisdom and his prowess in battle. Oh, and did I mention he was giant for his time, towering benevolently over his subjects. More manliness! 

So I was thrilled to find out just how much awesome manliness resides in my family lines and in my DNA. Kings, warriors,… oh, and pilgrims are cool, too, I guess.