Photographs and the Art of the Unselfie

I recently had the opportunity to look through some old photographs of my childhood and was surprised to find an album of family members all holding me not too long after I was born. It was such a thrill! 

So, there I am as an adorable little newborn and many of the people holding me are now deceased. 

Uncle Gilly

Grandpa

Uncle Jeff

I'm so grateful to my parents and the family members around me that took the time to document these important moments, and yet each picture just looks relaxed. These weren't photo shoots or  fancy parties. In fact, they usually just took place in the living rooms of these special loved ones. 

With today's technology we are never far from a camera and we take pictures all day. But we seem to take two kinds of pictures.
The first kind of picture is inanimate objects. Remember going on a field trip as a kid and your mom would send you with a disposable camera to capture your adventure? I certainly do. And I remember developing the pictures and they were all of random things. 

Grass in Washington D.C.

A floral shop in Washington D.C.

The second kind of pictures we seem to take are selfies. Selfies by the fist-full. 
As much fun as selfies are it's important that we take pictures of other things too. 
How in the world will we present our lives to future children and grandchildren if all we have are pictures of inanimate objects and selfies? What is our legacy if that's all we document? 
"Look at this picture when grandma's eyebrows were on point!" "And this one was an epic hair day grandma was having."

As we take pictures it's important that we document moments that we will want to remember, and to also make notes of who the people in the photo are. There are many apps that will let us record details about the pictures we take- and it is very important that we write (or type) the first AND last names of the people in the picture along with the date.
I've lost contact with friends from my first few semesters of college, and it makes me sad. I have pictures with these people but have you ever tried googling "Scottie the Hottie I think he was from New York"? It doesn't yield many results. 

That isn't to say that random pictures or selfies should be discouraged but rather that we should take a variety of pictures. 

Documenting our legacy is about the every day moments, and the tender times during our day. Our pictures should be more than random pictures of trash cans, selfies, or only photos of vacations and ballgames. We are so much more than any single event. We are all an amazing collection of adventures and moments and it's beautiful to look back and revel in these silly, sad, happy, thoughtful, meaningful, incredible memories. 

Take more pictures, smile, document, and remember. 

Happy Photographing Hunters! 

Twitter: A Love Story

I love Twitter 

It is my preferred source for finding news, celebrity drama, and movie updates. (If you haven't seen it yet, I'm still geeking out about Kenneth Branagh directing the Artemis Fowl movie.)

Other than getting news updates in it's many forms I can also see what's the latest in the world of family history. There are constantly updates, technology advancements, and record discoveries taking place as well as the foremost authorities in family history writing articles to help us all in our pursuit of hunting down our ancestors. 

If you don't have a twitter, it's easy to set up on your phone or your computer. 

Here are some great groups to follow on twitter that regularly update with articles, and helpful hints.
Family Search 
Ancestry
Ancestry Road Map 

These are just a few of my favorite groups to follow, and their tips are interesting to read. It's exciting to see that the world of family history is always moving forward and coming up with new ways of finding the people of our past.
There's always something new to do and something new to learn. 

Good luck Hunters and Huntresses! 

If you like it, then you should have put a thimble on it...

Mental Floss is one of my absolute favorite sites with amazing articles. This beauty is entitled "Why Engagement Rings Are Made With Diamonds". 
Take a look through this fascinating article and then match it up with your family tree. Which ancestors would have had thimbles? Diamond rings?

Click here to read the article.

Happy Hunting! 

Help and Inspiration

This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman who was just beginning his family history journey. It was the story he told that inspired him and his enthusiasm that was the most striking.

This gentleman said that he was recently in a church setting and was sitting quietly and just pondering when a stranger approached him to ask for help on a family history issue he was dealing with. The gentleman happily said he'd help and it was in helping this total stranger with his family history that he came to realization that these names are real people, and they are our family just as real as our living family members today. 

That experience made him want to begin working on his own family history. 
When I met this gentleman and his wife I was assisting them in getting organized on working on their family history. As he and his wife looked at the names in his tree he would tearily point at a name and say, "that's my grandmother" and "that's my auntie." 

This story was also wonderful to me because seeing a stranger be excited about family history can inspire others. My story of starting on my family history came from finding a name on my own tree and realizing that it was exciting and very possible to do this work. I loved hearing someone else's story of how they got started. 

What's your story? What first got you excited about starting the work on your family history?
I'd love to hear all about it!

Happy Hunting! 

Pink vs. Blue

Pink and Blue are two seemingly ordinary colors in the crayon spectrum that have special meaning for parents and babies everywhere. It's pretty well understood that little girls are swaddled in pink, and baby boys are wrapped in blue. 

However, it hasn't always been this way. 

Prior to World War II babies would have been dressed in the opposite color as they are today. 

It's true!

Red was thought of as an inherently masculine color, and any color that was a derivative of red was a color for men. Even little baby men. That meant maroon, and even pink were men's colors.

Blue was thought of to be a delicate, and beautiful color fit for a girl; one fit for a little lady. This was in part because of flowers like blue bells. 

Today when a couple wants to decorate their nursery in neutral colors they use green and yellow. Back in the pre-WWII days, couples would use blue and pink. That just sounds adorable! 

This interesting information lends to the question, well why did this change?

In large part it was because of the WWII imagery and propaganda of Rosie the Riveter in her factory blues, and how that image changed into the June Clever in a pink dress. When Rosie conquered at the factory in blue, and then held her homestead while in a pink dress, the color ideology altered.

What does this have to do with family history?

Any ancestor you have on your tree that was born in America prior to WWII would have been wrapped in a different color than babies are today. So, great-great-great grandpa was a pink baby boy- how cute is that? 

This is a great event to add to your family history timeline. 

Look through your family tree and see which family members would have been dressed in pink or blue. 

(All facts from this article can be seen here.)

Happy Hunting! 

Maple Leaf Rag

"Ragtime, which emerged in the 1890s, was composed music, written down for performance on the piano. Ragtime pieces were not accompanied by lyrics and not meant to be sung. The creative genus of ragtime, Scott Joplin, was born in Texarkana, Texas, in 1868. He learned to play on piano his mother bought from her earning as a maid, and he may have been trained in classical music. …He played at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and soon wrote ragtime sheet music that sold well. In 1899 he composed his best-known tune, the 'Maple Leaf Rag,' named after a social club (brothel) in Sedalia, Missouri. It sold an astonishing one million copies."
 From "African Americans: A Concise History" by Hine, Hine and Harold

Interesting bit of history, but what does it have to do with family history?
Well, Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag was written in 1899 and with a new style of printing that became available in 1900, the song Maple Leaf Rag was the hit song from 1900-1905. Everyone heard this song! And because of the notations on the sheet music people were hearing the song all over the country played the same way. 

Wow!

This hit jam was played in dance halls, bars, at parties- everywhere! With records becoming more and more available Maple Leaf Rag could be heard in homes from coast to coast.

That means that any of your ancestors (mine too) that were alive during 1900-1905 heard this song! It's a piece of history, and one that we can listen to and connect to. 

If you're working on a family history timeline then this song would be a great event to add to the timeline.

Check out Maple Leaf Rag here. 

Happy Hunting!

It's Alive!

A common question that gets asked when Hunters and Huntresses are working on family search is: Why can't I find my parents? My siblings? My own aunts and uncles?

And this is what I ask them: Are they alive?

Family Search is an amazing website, and it protects individuals privacy. What that means is if a person is alive then their information is kept private for them. I have a Family Search account, and so do my two sisters. When I first logged on I filled in my information and voila! There I was as the beginning of my tree. I also added in my sisters, individually, and my parents- because they are currently alive. I was able to search for three of my four grandparents in the system because they are dead and their records are available. 

On my sister's accounts they have created files for themselves, and for our parents etc. What that means is I currently exist at least three times. Uh oh! We don't want multiple files of a person- that's the whole point of merging files! But it's alright, because I am alive. Someday after I die and my information is public on Family Search then someone will reconcile the files of me into one, and then all the trees I'm on will connect in a new way.

This privacy also effects any photographs, or memories you add to a living person.

My dad also uses Family Search. When he adds a picture or memory of his deceased father to that file, we can all see it. It's really amazing! Suddenly all the people connected to grandpa can see old pictures, and read about the adventures of his Scouting days (my paternal grandfather was the ultimate Scout Master). 

However, my dad added a picture of me to the account he created for me, and I can't see it. Why? Because I'm alive and the account he created for me is (essentially) off line. It's individual and only my dad can see what he's added for me. 

Basically, people who are dead have files that can be viewed by anyone and are connected to other trees.

People who are alive have private, individual, offline files that can only be seen and accessed by the person who created them. 

It's a great opportunity to be able to create accurate accounts of family that are currently alive because we can get all their information perfect! We can ask them exactly when their birthday is, and where they were born (city, county, state, and country!) We can also add memories of them right now. In this, we are able to have full, complete files of our loved ones. 

How often have you wished you could ask someone on your tree who their relatives were? Wouldn't it all be easier if each family member had kept an honest, and exact journal?

Don't wait to interview living families. Don't regret the time you have now! In an early post I listed some solid interview questions for talking with loved ones. That list can help you in creating a loved one's living file. 

As you work on your family tree and find yourself frustrated in trying to find a family member take the time to pause, and remember that if they're alive it's private, deceased then it's public. 

Happy Hunting!