Genealogy Blog Family History

8 Facts About Ellis IslandPosted by Administrator on April 17th, 2010

Ellis Island has become a symbol of immigration in the U.S., a symbol of the foreign heritage most of us share as Americans. Ellis Island is also incredibly important to most genealogists in the U.S. because, chances are, their ancestors passed through the Ellis Island Immigration Center during its tenure as the U.S.’s primary portal. To give our readers an idea of just how much of a role Ellis Island played in American history, we created this infographic and included the documentary below. Hope you enjoy it!

Ellis Island then and now

Source: http://www.history.com/interactives/ellis-island

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.

Family History BlitzPosted by Administrator on November 20th, 2009

 As I mentioned in my last post, our family just came into a huge list of names and dates. And it seems like the subject of compiling everything in one place has been in the air every time my cousins and I get together. People have records here and records there, stuff shoved into shoe boxes or old photo albums. Because we can’t shake the nagging feeling that we need to make an inventory of all the records we have, we are getting together this Saturday for a family history blitz.

This means we’re going to go online and see what we have already. Then we’re going to take all the loose bits of paper and notes on the backs of photos and make sure everything is accounted for. At the end, we’ll know where we’re missing information, where our efforts should placed. 

Has anyone out there ever done this? Did it work? Let me know.