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In this special Thanksgiving week edition of the E-mail Update, I'd like to share what I'm thankful for: Your enthusiastic response to the FamilyTreeMagazine.com Forum, our blogs, and e-mail surveys to see which Family Tree Magazine cover you like best.

We enjoy hearing your thoughts on the magazine and seeing your passion for family history. You can get a glimpse of it, too, in readers' Thanksgiving Forum posts (below).

Planning your Black Friday shopping? You can cross some genealogists off your list right now. Our CD of 2006 Family Tree Magazine issues—plus the special Genealogy Guidebook issue—is now available for $24. Learn more about this and our other CDs at http://www.fwmagazines.com/category/cds.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

—Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com

P.S. Make sure you don't miss a single issue of your E-mail Update! Add our address (familytree-newsletter@fwpubs.com) to your e-mail-address book—your software will recognize the Update as an e-mail you want to read.
 

• AfricanDNA.com Testing and Research Service Launches
• Map Chicago Ancestors on Interactive Site
• The First First Thanksgiving
• Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner?
• Let's Talk Family History on Turkey Day
• Worthwhile Web Sites
• Photo Detective: Photo Displays at Family Gatherings
  
• FamilyTreeMagazine.com Events Calendar
• Advertiser Special Offers

AfricanDNA.com Testing and Research Service Launches
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard professor who hosted PBS' "African-American Lives" series, is partnering with genetic genealogy company FamilyTreeDNA to launch AfricanDNA. The new service will provide provide African-Americans with family tree research in addition to DNA testing.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/AfricanDNA
+Testing+And+Research+Service+Launches.aspx

Map Chicago Ancestors on Interactive Site
Chicago's Newberry Library has created ChicagoAncestors.org, an interactive mapping Web site to help you with place-based research of your Windy City ancestors. We'll give you some hints for using this cool site and tell you how it can help your research.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/Map+Chicago
+Ancestors+On+Interactive+Site.aspx

The First First Thanksgiving
We hate to disappoint you, but the very first Thanksgiving in the New World wasn't the Pilgrims' legendary feast in Plymouth, Mass.

Nope, the first first Thanksgiving was Dec. 4, 1619—a year and 17 days before the Pilgrims even left England. We'll explain on the Genealogy Insider blog.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/The+FIRST+First+Thanksgiving.aspx

Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner?
A couple of newsletters ago, we asked which ancestor you'd most like to invite to Thanksgiving dinner, and why. Here's a selection of your responses; see more in the Back Fence Forum at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forum/forums/
forum-view.asp?fid=22.

I'd invite my 4th-great-grandparents Johann Hartmann Bartolf and Catharina Elisabeth Braun Bartolf, who lived in Mezobereny, Hungary, as German settlers. They had 22 children and I would ask Catharina to just sit and enjoy herself, to relax and be waited on.
—Danubeschwaben

My great-grandfather Oren Rhoades worked in a power plant in Jackson County, Wis. He got off work at noon Thanksgiving Day, 1917, and walked across the Black River to his brother's house for dinner, but broke through the ice and drowned. I'd like him to have the dinner he never made it to.
—AlanRRT

It would have to be my great-great-grandmother, Eliza Manning Shaw. She was the young mother of five who died while her husband was in the Civil War, and I have no idea how she died or where she's buried.
—BluGinhm

Each Thanksgiving, there would be a toast to our Pilgrim fathers and with much work, I've proved three lines (Soule, Alden and Howland) and am working on two more. My third-great grandparents were known for their huge Thanksgiving family dinners. As it is said, they knew they were Pilgrims, so I would like them to be my guests this Thanksgiving.
—midgef

I can agree with everyone about having a relative that would help their research like my great-great-grandfather Maurice DeVries or his father-in-law, my third-great-grandfather Wolfe VanGeldren ... but what I really would want is my father one more time at the table.
—nattjo

Talking Family History on Turkey Day
Since everyone's sitting around the table anyway, and you can only talk about the game for so long, Thanksgiving dinner is the perfect time to talk with relatives about your ancestors.

You all suggested conversation starters in the Back Fence Forum, including Sgill17's "Who's the most distant relative you can name?" starting with the youngest person at the table. Nattjo's wife is planning to set up a videocamera during her family's Christmas gathering to capture ancestor discussions.

See http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forum/forums/
thread-view.asp?tid=658&posts=4&start=1 to add your own ideas.

The Surgeon General wants families to talk about health history at Thanksgiving, too. You might ask what relatives know of ancestors' illnesses and causes of death. Later, as you research, look for medical complaints in old letters and journals. Also note ancestors' causes of death and ages at death (usually in hospital records, death certificates, coroners' reports, funeral records or obituaries).

There's even a a Web-based application called My Family Health Portrait at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory. You can use it to organize family health history information, then print it and take it to your next medical checkup.

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Do you have a great idea for discovering, preserving or celebrating family history? E-mail us your tip at ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com with "TIP OF THE WEEK" in the subject line. If we publish it, you'll win a free copy of Finding Your Famous (& Infamous) Ancestors by Rhonda McClure, also available for purchase online at: http://www.fwbookstore.com/product/1187/8.

Overwhelmed by all the family history-related Web sites out there? FamilyTreeMagazine.com sorts through them to bring you the best. We recently recommended the following as Sites of the Week:

• The Mayflower Society
  http://www.themayflowersociety.com/index.htm
  The official society of Mayflower passengers' descendants offers information on the pilgrims, their Thanksgiving celebration and more.

• The History of Thanksgiving
  http://www.historychannel.com/thanksgiving
  Get the real story behind Thanksgiving dinner—you'll be amazed how much this American tradition has changed since 1621.

Photo Slide Shows at Family Gatherings
We're going back to the classic Photo Detective columns for this one, with tips on pulling together a family gathering photo display that's sure to get relatives talking about (and maybe even identifying) mysetery photos.

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/sept02-04.htm

If you have a family photo mystery for photo historian Maureen A. Taylor to solve, check out our Submission Guidelines at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm.

Find upcoming genealogy and living history seminars—and publicize your group’s events—in our online calendar. You must be registered with the FamilyTreeMagazine.com Forum to post.

Get Family Tree Magazine back issues at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/mags.

Explore Family Tree Magazine E-mail Update past issues at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter/archive.html.

Sponsor This Newsletter
For information on sponsoring this newsletter or to receive a rate card, e-mail Dave Peters, Senior Account Executive, at dpeters@kqandr.com

 

January 2008 Issue

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