I came across this lovely idea while spending time searching the Ellis Island archives. You can purchase holiday ornaments from Ellis Island here: http://www.ellisisland.org/shop/product.asp?NODE_ID=50&CHILDID=&PP=1
It's a lovely gift idea for someone who has a relative who came to the new world via Ellis Island.
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I remember Grama's place. You couldn't see the house from the winding country road. You had to turn off into a narrow lane where the rusty mail boxes stood and pass two other houses before Grama's house came into view high on a hill. All the way up the drive on each side were deep rows of peony bushes. On a June night their perfume would fill the air welcoming you to Grama's place. My mother had a dream. She wanted to be a published writer. I remember listening to her banging away on our old, delapidated typewriter whenever the inspiration seized her. With three kids, an enormous vegetable garden and a job as a teacher, she didn't have much time to devote to her muses. When us kids were pretty well grown, she signed up for a writing class. She loved it. Finally, after many years, the stories that were churning around in her head were being put to paper. I guess I've always been surrounded by family history. We have been lucky enough to inherit heirlooms that have been passed down through the generations, along with the stories about the brave individuals who owned them. This is the rocking chair that we had when I was growing up. It has been reupholstered several times over the years; I remember it when it was a brilliant orange/brown/red pattern that screamed 1970s. Imagine a young woman of 18 with the courage to travel alone across the ocean with her life's possessions. I have always admired Anna's bravery, even before I had any inkling what family history or genealogy was. Although she died in 1942 and I never met her I'd like to think that through my work and this blog she lives on. I've found a couple of websites that allow us family tree detectives to display our hard work in very unique and interesting ways. The first website is Wordle, You can generate word clouds with various text that you input. Just import text or type it in manually. The really fun part is that the most common words or names are highlighted, so you can see what names are prominent in your entire family. You can experiment with fonts, colours and create something really funky or traditional, depending on your style. The second website is Digital Roots. You can download software that will allow you to print your entire family tree on one piece of paper. It's amazing! Genealogy is carving a huge and creative niche in the world. I'm really excited to find sites like these that highlight our hard work. In my current life I'm a Health Sciences librarian. I really love Science and always have. I love knowing how things work, especially the human body. Physiology fascinates me. How can the body do all that it does perfectly accurately 99% of the time? A good friend of mine, Deborah Holme, has written a lovely book. It's called "Sarah's Poppy Puppy" http://sarahspoppypuppy.ca/ It's aim is to teach children the significance of Remembrance Day. It's actually quite easy to trace individuals in the mid-1800s in England. Even if they moved around quite a lot -- which my gggrandfather did -- it's easy to trace families through the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 census returns. Granted, my ancestor had a fairly unique name, James Gilmore, so it's not like I'm looking up John Smith. Most folks find cemeteries depressing. I can understand that. Personally, I find cemeteries to be fascinating and peaceful. (But only during the day. You'll never find me in a cemetery after dark. I'm not that brave!) |
Why a blog?Family history just fascinates me. And not just my own. There are many facts and people that have been lost to time. I really enjoy puzzles and sometimes I come across some really interesting mysteries in my genealogy travels. I'll post some of my musings here. Archives
November 2015
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