The holidays are upon us. We could discuss family
traditions, family history gifts or traditional holiday recipes. Here are some
ideas:
1. Gather questions for the Thanksgiving
dinner table: Who was the oldest relative you met? What’s a favorite
Thanksgiving memory you have?
2. Write a Christmas/holiday letter and
include a family history story or game. Does your family like word searches or
crossword puzzles? Is there a great story to tell?
3. Gather all the information for a
family recognitions certificate. Nebraska has three to choose from, and yes,
other states have them, too, but we won’t talk about that.
4. Gather some favorite family recipes.
Make a book, put them all on a blog, or have a party and make all the food.
Make sure to include photos in the book or blog.
5. Collect family photos and share them.
Scan them and give to family on CD or thumb drive. Put them on a Facebook group
or in a blog. Make them into a book or scrapbook. Create Christmas ornaments
from the photos. Make a wreath from the photos.
6. Watch a genealogy show together. My “top 5” include: Relative Race (byutv.org), Finding Your Roots, Roots Less
Traveled (Formerly called A New Leaf), Who Do You Think You Are? (new season in
UK, check YouTube) and The Genetic Detective.
7. Discover a new-to-you website. Some
options below:
NEW (OR
LESSER KNOWN) GENEALOGY WEBSITES
A. www.trackuback.com This is based out of Sweden but anyone can join. They have a free level
and a paid level. You get 5 things with the free level: family tree, geography
window, timeline, tools for editing, and managing your images. You get 10
additional things for the paid level. Subscription rate looks to be $90 a year.
B. www.davidrumsey.com A historical map collection with over 90,000 maps.
C. www.genteam.org Indexed records of the
German-speaking area, with over 18 million entries. Some of the website is in
German, so you may want to translate.
