Story@Home

This year at RootsTech there are a couple of new additions. One is the Getting Started Track and the other is Story@Home. Story@Home is a great addition, particularly as we (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints/Mormons) have been encouraged to connect with our relatives through stories. I know that my kids aren't really motivated by a pedigree chart, but a story will get them every time! If you are looking for a way to engage your family in your hobby/passion, go for the stories. Story@Home will give you some great ideas and resources. For a schedule of their classes, click here.

(Nope, not affiliated with Story@Home!)

Year End Happenings!

Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

Both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org have changes happening at the moment! Click this link to find out what the big changes are and scroll to December 18th. The FamilySearch announcement has extra information for indexers! Thanks AncestryInsider!

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Crystal Dawn Melick 1983-1987

Dearest Crystal,

Today you would have turned 29 yrs. old. Where have the years flown? We want you to know that we still miss you and think of you every single day. We sure hope that you know that you have not been forgotten. We are grateful for the short three and a half years that you were with us. We look forward to an eternity with you!

Love,

Dad, Mom, CAM and Alyssa

P.S. The journal that we kept about you will get us through the day. Just know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We love you!

Journals...Not Boring Anymore!

Let's face it. Either you are a journal keeper or you aren't. In my family, I am the journal keeper and my husband isn't really. As for the kids, they're split on the topic! However, whenever anyone wants to know something, they are grateful that I have made a note of it. For instance, today my youngest granddaughter rolled over and back for the first time. Somewhere down the line, someone will ask me about it. Another instance...my daughter has a little one close to potty training. My daughter asked me when she was potty trained. I told her to go look in the journal that I kept for her! My obsessiveness may seem bizarre, but I feel strongly that I need to record these things.

As many of you may have figured out, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). We are big journal keepers. Last month in the magazine that is produced for the youth (ages 12-18) there was a great article on journal keeping. What I loved is that it wasn't your everyday journal article! It had ideas on how to keep a journal that fits with what you love and your lifestyle. Here is the link!

Another idea for journaling... an online journal! I use ldsjournal.com (I have no connection and receive no compensation from ldsjournal.com). The account is free and anyone can use it. I find that I write more when I can type it because I type so much faster. I have journals for my three granddaughters and myself at ldsjournal.com. They give you the ability to print out your entries at any time and also the ability to create a book of your entries. How I would have loved to read a journal of any of my ancestors!

Fun Family History Christmas Presents

The older I get, the more I value Christmas presents that have a meaning. I have outgrown the '70's "gotta have" bell bottoms teenager stuff, the '80's newlywed casserole dish infestation, the '90's Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze for my kids, and the 2000's stuff, stuff, and more stuff! I am hearkening back to what really means the most to me... Family! Everything else can come and go, but families are there through thick and thin forever!

This is little Miss Oaklie. We decided to do a book of pictures of her throughout the year that we had taken. It captures her year very well and you can really see the personality shine through. She is a little pistol that can shoot you a look that just melts your heart! Typical grandmother feeling, I know!

Next person up was Raylie Kay. Isn't she adorable? We pulled from our storage bank of pictures of Raylie through the year. At this point, we were on a roll and decided to keep going!

After the granddaughters, we decided to try out a book about our daughter's wedding! After all, she was the reason we had granddaughters! I suppose we should have started here, but were coming from a different place at the time. Once we got going, we realized that we could make books of anything! It was fun to do this wedding book because we used pictures that we took with our own camera, not the official photographer's pictures.

CAM's wedding came next! By then, we were semi-pros at this book creation thing! Again, my husband was the mastermind behind the project!

Finally, last year was our 30th wedding anniversary and we took ourselves to Europe for thirty days. We came home with about 1400 pictures, but we were able to narrow them down enough to create a memento of the fun we had!

These books were created with Shutterfly, an online photo company. It is one of many companies out there that are into desktop publishing. Google desktop publishing and you'll be amazed at what you can do!

Hopefully, seeing these will give you some ideas. It may be a little late for this year, but a great time to get started for next year! The sky's the limit!

Collaboration in Family History

There is a lot of talk these days about collaborating in family history! That means that we actually could get a lot done if we would just talk to Aunt Mabel or Cousin Fred. We didn't grow up in a vacuum and neither did our ancestors. Our relatives have information that we might not have. We may also have information that our relatives don't have! So, how could collaboration work? Watch this cool video to see an example of real time collaboration. This can be done NOW! The future is here! There is also a wiki document here to get you started! Happy collaborating!