Oprah talks Genealogy

Did anyone catch the Oprah show on Tuesday? She talked to Lisa Kudrow from the show Who Do You Think You Are? and also interviewed Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr from the PBS series African American Lives. These shows, along with the growing popularity of Ancestry.com have really served to introduce the general population to genealogy research, an area formerly reserved for a relatively small population of highly trained researchers.
So go to http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Celebs-Dig-Up-Their-Family-Secrets to watch clips from the show and from the above mentioned TV programs.

Interviewing Your Family

Last weekend I had a great visit from my mom and nephew Carter. We went to the beach, rode the ferris wheel, hiked Runyan Canyon, shopped at the Grove and ate a lot of good food. Most importantly - I found time to interview Carter (on videotape). Most genealogists know that interviewing living family members is one of the most important things that you can do to preserve your family history for generations to come. But often we only think of interviewing our older relatives - and miss out on the younger generation. So I decided to start very young - with my youngest relative that can talk! And - boy can Carter talk. In the coming weeks I'm going to take the results of my interview and work on creating our newest product. I'll post more on that as I make progress. For now - pictures of Carter enjoying Los Angeles.

Fourth of July Memories

Do you ever ask a question and assume you already know the answer you will get? That's pretty much how we felt when we decided to ask 3 generations of women in our family to describe their most memorable Fourth of July. You'd likely assume, as we did, that you'd get a lot of descriptions of amazing fireworks displays, fun times with family, and good food.
So what happens when you get answers that are completely the opposite of what you expected? Well, let me tell you..
Our grandmother recalls that on July 4 of 1972, a family friend "dropped dead" at her local July 4th parade. That's the first "memorable" fourth of July that came to her mind. All the others were pretty much the same. Ok how can you top that one?
Our mother remembers being really excited to take her two young daughters to their very first fireworks display one July fourth. She vividly recalls how we (Jeanne & Susan) burst into tears when the very first firework went off and were soon so hysterical that she and our Dad had to pack up and leave early.
We (Susan, Heather, and Jeanne) agree that one of our best memories of a fourth of July is when we were allowed to climb on top of our cousins' back porch roof and sit up there watching a nearby park's fireworks display.
So, while the answers we got from our grandmother and mother were not quite as expected, they gave us something that we didn't have before. These were stories that we had never heard. They gave us stories and memories that were a part of their own life story that are now a part of ours.
If there's a lesson to be learned, it's to ask your family questions about their life experiences because you never know what you will learn (and who couldn't use a good laugh?)
What has been your most memorable Fourth of July?

How Far Back Can You Go (Part 2)?

Agnes (Santifort) VanDerAa, Cora (VanDerAa) Veldkamp, Jeanne (Veldkamp) Manovich, Diane (Manovich) Grubb, Jeanne (Grubb) Hall, Natalie Hall

Remember the male line on the paternal side of the family and the amazing resemblance? Well, we'd now like to introduce (in pictures) the female line on our maternal side. There's definitely some physical resemblance here too, although not as striking as with the males. We can trace seven generations of this female line and we have photos of six generations, which is pretty impressive. In fact - my mother recently sent me a copy of my birth announcement from the local paper (pictured below). In it are the names of all of the women pictured above (except for Natalie) - which means 5 generations were all alive at the same time.


It's amazing to see all the generations lined up like this and feel a connection to the women before us. I can only imagine how their lives were different than ours today!

How far can you trace back a male or female line in your family? How many of these individuals do you have pictures of?