Genealogy Pointers

I came across this press release and was really impressed! What a great idea! I can see this becoming a powerful tool in helping preserve family history!

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ — They lived through the Roaring 20's, Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the psychedelic 60’s and Civil Rights marches. They invented liberation movements of all kinds, environmentalism, pop culture and counter-culture. They are the wealthiest, most influential, most inventive generations in US history.

Beginning today, Seniors, Baby Boomers, and Echo Boomers have a powerful new free web site to help them capture stories of values, faith, careers, romance, wars, controversy, wins, losses, and yes, even mundane events of their lives.

GreatLifeStories, Inc. announces the debut of a new, easy-to-use web site that lets people gather, share and grow treasured individual and family stories, memoirs, and biographies for families today, and for future generations.

“This is the easy version of MySpace for our parent’s and grandparent’s generations,” said Phil Gibson, CEO and Founder. “Stories and personalities are a family’s most precious legacy. GreatLifeStories is an online community designed with great respect for the accomplishments of previous generations. We strive to make it easy to celebrate life and preserve great stories forever.”

GreatLifeStories features thousands of unique and memorable stories such as Emilia Gallegos, the little girl who survived a hair-raising escape across a bridge with bullets flying from Pancho Villa’s men during the Mexican Revolution. John Rialson was an aspiring trumpet player who was thrust into the big-time when tapped to join Linda Ronstadt’s touring band in the 70’s Or Ralph Appio, a young man who survived battle in Pusan, Korea, to return to a farm that grew into Silicon Valley.

INSTANT DIGITAL “COOL” FOR MOM, DAD, GRANDMA OR GRANDPA

It’s simple to start a GreatLifeStory for oneself, a family member or friend. Once started, people grow the story themselves, or invite others to add unique memories and recollections. Stories expand quickly and organically into a rich, fully rounded 360-degree portrait of an individual or family.

“Imagine a family gathering together to capture the memoirs of Grandma and Grandpa. In an hour or two using GreatLifeStories, adults and grandkids get a family history lesson that the grandparents might never otherwise get around to telling them. In addition, Grandma and Grandpa will feel so cool as they join the digital age by creating their own great-looking personal website,” Gibson said.

“Memories are priceless when delivered in someone’s own words. The spirit of Grandma is so much more real when her Irish roots come through in the sound of her own voice for future generations,” said Gibson.

For an example, check out the hilarious story of John Matson’s first date at http://www.greatlifestories.com/life_story/romance_and_marriage/john_matson/10 2_5.html

KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS

3 Easy Steps: With a few mouse clicks, a user can start typing, upload photos, and publish their Great Life Story in moments.

Create Custom-Printed Personal Memoir Books: Another click, and you assemble your own Great Life Story into a handsome booklet. These make treasured mementos for birthdays, anniversaries, or any important life event.

Choice of Privacy and Security Options: GreatLifeStories is 100% secure. A user can designate access security as private, restricted to friends and family, or public. People can change their security preference at any time.

Easy, Inspirational Browsing: Individuals or families can browse the site and check out the newest story additions and vote for their “Favorites” or they can browse Great Accomplishments, Great Relationships, Great Health, Great Success, or Great Escapes.

Unique Navigation Design: GreatLifeStories is organized into 12 life “chapters.” Sample chapter titles include “Funnybones,” “Romance and Marriage,” and “School Days.” In each chapter, on-screen questions and video tutorials guide users, making it easy to organize and capture years of memories. People can easily upload photos to illustrate each life chapter.

Powerful Visual Search: GreatLifeStories features a custom-designed search engine that quickly and easily finds connections across life stories. It’s amazing how many shared experiences surface when you can leverage new technology to discover that people shared the same experience in their era.

ABOUT GREATLIFESTORIES

Founded in 2006, GreatLifeStories is privately-held, values-driven company dedicated to using the latest technology to create meaningful connections among individuals and families across generations. GreatLifeStories is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The web site is at www.GreatLifeStories.com

genealogy, family history, baby boomers, greatlifestories.com, perserving personal histories

Many of us come from Irish and/or Scottish roots, but few of us probably speak the great language of our ancestors, Gaelic. Gaelic is a slowly dying language but there are groups working to change that in both countries and in Canada as well. The Gaelic language is an important part of the culture in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia-so much so that you’ll find street signs in both English and Gaelic! My great grandmother spoke, sang, and wrote Gaelic and her son, my great uncle, has carried on that tradition. If you’ve got Scottish or Irish roots you’ll want to learn all you can about this colorful and rich language. Most Scotch and Irish historical records before 1900 or so are in Gaelic, so that makes it even more important. To learn more about Gaelic, you can vist this site.

genealogy, family history, scottish history, irish history, tracing your roots, Scotland, Ireland, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

If you haven’t stopped by Rootsweb yet you really should. This website hosts a multitude of valuable resources for genealogy buffs-everything from a
U.S Town and County database to mailing lists and message boards. In fact, they have one of just about every surname you can think of! There are also user submitted family trees, links to hundreds of genealogy related webpages and databases, and more. If you love genealogy you’ve got to check it out!

genealogy, family history, Rootweb, genealogy databases, family trees

Hello!
I’m sure part of your genealogical research has involved going through lots of old photos-many of people you may not recognize, and naturally, there’s nothing written on the back. It is so important to label all your photos for future generations. Some online photo services allow you to add custom wording to the back of each photo you order. For example, my wedding snapshots have the names of the people in them and “Walsh Wedding 6-23-07″. If you’ve got prints from a film camera, you can use a simple roller ball or ball point pen, but use a light hand so it doesn’t damage the photo. Keep them in an acid free album or storage box. I actually have some framed and displayed in my home, but I keep them away from direct sunlight and have back up copies stored safely away. In a future article I’ll discuss how to figure out when a photo was taken!

genealogy, family history, old photos, preserving old photos

Hello everyone!
I am the new writer for this blog and I want to welcome you. I have been an avid amateur genealogist for many years, and have traced my family’s roots all the way back to 1700’s Scotland and Ireland. My grandparents on both sides were born and raised in Canada and my parents are first generation Americans. I have found a lot of joy and satisfaction in genealogy. It’s a fun and facinating hobby and one of the fastest growing in the U.S today. Through this blog I’ll share tips, tricks, and lots of information to help you in your research. There is a wonderful saying about Genealogy…learn about your ancestors and you’ll get to know yourself.

genealogy, ancestry, family history, research assistance