History and Genealogy

The genealogy bug can be traced back to the 1977 movie “Roots”, a powerful film that so impressed its viewers that they wanted to see just what their own family was made of. Back then, those researchers were confined to libraries and often had to travel long distances or use mail service to gather information.

Today it is much easier to make a family tree because we can now do it all online! There are many sites that offer the service at no charge, even provided free software to download. Genealogy software makes family trees easy to create; you simply enter the name of your ancestor along with the birth and death dates and they are placed on the tree in chronological order in the proper branch of the family. Some software allows you to include the place of birth and death but those extras are usually included on programs you buy. Read the rest of this entry »

Ellen Lupton, the curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the director of the master’s program in graphic design at the Maryland Institute College of Art recently posted a well written and humorous article in the opinion section of the NY Times about the angst of having inherited stuff from the past. It appears that her need to eliminate clutter trumps her archival gene… something I didn’t expect from a curator.

Of course, you know that there are always opposites in life, even extremes: throw the baby out with the bathwater is at the opposite end of the spectrum as not being able to throw anything away for fear. Some inner emotional balance is required in this discussion that, surprisingly, has a lot at stake. Read the rest of this entry »

Each one of us would like to have an insight into our past generations with regard who our fore fathers were, what did they do for a living, and so forth. Though the task may seem to be very interesting at first glance, yet it could prove to be quite a cumbersome task while tracing to our immediate predecessors, let alone the details of previous 3-4 generations. One does not have to get disheartened as where there is a will, there is a way. With the useful tips given below, you can sure reduce the burden but still you would have to put in some effort to create an ideal family tree website. Read the rest of this entry »