Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor

Known as the father of photojournalism, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was the first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine having served from 1899-1954. He is credited with having built the magazine into the publication that it is today. Grosvenor was also president of  the National Geographic Society  from 1920-1954 and made it into one of the world’s largest and best known science and learning organizations through its magazine of ambitious natural and cultural explorations around the world. He advocated policies of neutrality and positive, upbeat journalism through the Great Depression and the beginning of the Cold War. By the 1950s Grosvenor and his staff were criticized as being conservative and unwilling to modernize which lead to the National Geographic’s subscription base to fall. Grosvenor stepped down from his role in National Geographic in 1954. 

Gilbert Grosvenor was born on October 28, 1875 in Istanbul, Turkey to Edwin and Lilian Waters Grosvenor. He married Elsie May Bell who was the daughter of inventor Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel Hubbard. Gilbert and Elsie are the parents of Melville Bell Grosvenor and Dr. Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor; and grandparents of Gilbert Melville Grosvenor and Edwin S. Grosvenor.

Dr. Mabel Grosvenor

Dr. Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor became one of the first female graduates of the Johns Hopkins University medical program in Baltimore, Maryland. She became a pediatrician and worked with disadvantaged children in Washington, D.C.’s Children’s Hospital. Grosvenor had worked as a secretary for her grandfather Alexander Graham Bell. In October 1920, she accompanied her grandfather on his “farewell visit” of Europe, where he searched for long-lost ancestors. They found several cousins he didn’t know existed by scouring genealogical records in Scotland which was where Bell was born. Grosvenor oversaw the stewardship of Bell’s legacy Canadian estate at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia until her death in 2006.

Melville Bell Grosvenor was the president of the National Geographic Society and editor of National Geographic Magazine from 1957-1969. During this time he increased the size of printed photographs in the magazine, and initiated the practice of opening articles with a two-page photo feature. The magazine began to branch out from land expeditions to cover investigations into space and the deep sea. Grosvenor expanded into the production of documentaries bearing the National Geographic name among them were the first American expedition to Mount Everest and Jacques Cousteau’s underwater exploits.

Melville’s son Gilbert Melville Grosvenor is a past president and chief executive of the National Geographic Society (1980-1996). He was also a former editor of National Geographic Magazine (1970-1980). Grosvenor was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2004. Gilbert’s brother Edwin S. Grosvenor is the editor in chief of American Heritage magazine. He is a former president of the National Geographic Society. Edwin along with Morgan Wesson wrote a biography of his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell: The Life and Times of the Man Who Invented the Telephone.

Check out Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor’s family tree and see how you may be related!

Clara Barton

On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. After learning of the Red Cross in Europe, she returned to the U.S. and campaigned for the establishment of an American Red Cross organization to provide emergency response in the event of crisis from war or natural disasters. She served as the organizations first president and led it for 23 years.

Clara Barton is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Clara Barton’s Geni Profile

The Genealogy Sphere

• New Area Means New Rules – Sometimes (Genealogy Tip of the Day) – Great tip when you’re researching your migrating ancestors
• Sarah Polley explores her uprooted, twisted family tree (LA Times) – Actor-director Sarah Polley talks about her newest documentary about her family
• Skeleton of teenage girl confirms cannibalism at Jamestown colony (The Washington Post) – Archaeological discover shows evidence of cannibalism in Jamestown colony
• Searching for Roots, Finding Characters (NY Times) – New HBO comedy by Christopher Guest finds the humor in genealogy
• Director of Franklin County, Ala., archives uses hangers to search for grave sites (TheRepublic.com) – A local archives director explains how he uses hangers to find gravesites

On Geni

• SuperSearch™ with Geni – We’ve added a direct link to MyHeritage’s SuperSearch on Geni
• Family Tree Tuesday – Charles Pillsbury - Are you related to Charles Pillsbury? Learn more about his ancestry here
• Introducing a Faster Way to Research Your Ancestry – We added “Research this person” link on your relatives’ Geni profiles for an even faster way to find historic records
• More Amazing Discoveries Made Through Record Matches and Smart Matches™ – Read about some amazing discoveries made by Geni users

Profile of the Day

• Stephen Colbert
• Thomas Gainsborough
• Emily Dickinson
• Rainn Wilson
• Maureen O’Sullivan

Honore de Balzac

On May 20, 1799, noted French novelist Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours, France. Regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature, Balzac exhibited an unfiltered representation of society in his works. La Comédie Humaine, a series of short stories and novels representing French life after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, is widely regarded as one of his greatest achievements of his career. Many subsequent novelists would be greatly influenced by Balzac’s writings, including Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens and Emile Zola.

Honoré de Balzac is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Honoré de Balzac’s Geni Profile

Jennifer Lynn Young:

“So far Smart Matches have led me to 17 collateral ancestors (siblings of ancestors in my direct line), a photo for one gr-grandmother whose profile has been faceless up til now; and – the biggest thrill of all – Smart Matching connected me with a family tree on MyHeritage that may have given me the parents of a Scottish ancestor who has been a genealogical brick wall for fifty years! My great-aunt hired a researcher in Scotland to gather information on this family line in the Sixties, but they struck out. My family will be thrilled, and although I didn’t start out as a fan of SmartMatches I have to say I’m an enthusiastic convert now!”

Kris Stewart:

” I have had my Irish 3rd great grandmother in my tree for many years but could never find any info on her parents. Following a Smart Match the other day, I was able to contact a cousin who lives in Ireland. In her MyHeritage tree, she had the parents and additional info from the church records there in Ireland.”

“This ancestor was actually an ancestor of the great grandmother whose photo I found the other day through a Record Match. The Record Match led to a photo on the Canadian Headstones site. I had the name and date of death and I knew of the site, but had never searched that site for that particular ancestor before. Many other family members were also buried there, and came up in Record Matches in the tree as well. The time saved by being pointed in the direction of existing records without having to enter the name and info of each person into a search box is invaluable.”

Jason Wills:

“Thanks to record matching i just discovered my aunty is Estonian.”

“I had searched for the surname and drew a blank, and had heard my great aunt was “Croatian”, but straight away found the Smart Match, and that she was Estonian and now have a short link to Estonian Jaak Tulp through her.”

“Here’s her Estonian grandfather:”

Georgett Studnicka:

“You are giving me many matches (I love it!).”

Randy Schoenberg:

“I like to add new profiles to the tree. Now, as soon as I add a profile, I wait for the little blue circle to appear and tell me if there is a Tree Match to an existing profile on Geni, a Smart Match to a tree on MyHeritage or a Record Match to one of MyHeritage’s billions of records, including census data, birth records, social security death records and newspaper articles. The data is so comprehensive that it is hard to add more than a few profiles without getting a match to something helpful.”

Jaak Tulp:

“First of all i wanna apologize that i even thought first that RM and SM are somehow obsolete. I can say now for sure, that they are not. I hit a real gold mine – all of the added profiles are either pastors, professors, scientists, doctors, militarists and they are connected to me via the dearest childhood friend of my grandmother she played with in the castle of Karksi, Estonia. The father´s branch of bloodline of the friend includes also the father of “Õ” letter in Estonian alphabet Otto Wilhelm Masing a.s.o. So…thank you, thank you and one more time thank you. I´m thrilled and exited! After a while my collaborator found the connection point to existing profiles in Geni and merged them, but i have still lots of profiles to add and looking for the data extraction tool to save my fingers for clicking, not typing ”

To read more exciting discoveries by other users, click here.

We always happy to hear more success stories. If you have a story you would like to share with us and possibly feature on the blog, please email us at community@geni.com .

Maureen O'Sullivan

On May 17, 1911, actress Maureen O’Sullivan was born in Boyle, Ireland.  As one of Ireland’s first film stars, O’Sullivan is perhaps best remembered for her portrayal as Jane in six Tarzan features. Did you know as a child, O’Sullivan attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart along with future Academy Award winning actress Vivien Leigh?

Maureen O’Sullivan is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Maureen O’Sullivan’s Geni Profile

Rainn Wilson

Tonight, the popular comedy televisions series The Office airs its final episode after nine season. In honor of the finale, we’re highlighting Rainn Wilson‘s family tree on Geni. Born in Seattle, Washington, Wilson found stardom as Dwight Schrute on The Office, for which he received three Emmy nominations.

Are you sad to see The Office end? Check out The Office (U.S. Series) project on Geni to learn more about the genealogies of the entire cast and some fun family connections between them!

Did you know Rainn Wilson is related to his Office co-star Ed Helms? Ed Helms is his 16th cousin twice removed!

Rainn Wilson is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Rainn Wilson’s Geni Profile

Image credit: David Shankbone

Emily Dickinson

Today we remember poet Emily Dickinson, who died on May 15, 1886 in Amherst, Massachusetts. During her lifetime, Dickinson composed nearly eighteen hundred poems, however fewer than a dozen were published while she was living. Today, she is considered one of the most celebrated and revered poets in history.

Emily Dickinson is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Emily Dickinson’s Geni Profile

“Research this person” link on a profile (click to zoom)

Clicking on this convenient link will automatically take you to MyHeritage’s SuperSearch™ results for that profile. There’s no need to type in information about your relative to start your search; Research this person takes the information on the profile, including the full name, gender, birth date, and death date, and automatically searches for matching records from MyHeritage’s collection of 4 billion historical records and millions of newspaper articles. This link provides a simple and easy way for you to discover more about the lives of your family members.

MyHeritage SuperSearch™ results (click to zoom)

The “Research this person” link is especially useful in cases we do not find a Record Match for someone. Remember, just because there are no Record Matches doesn’t mean there are no records for that person. Our matching technologies are incredibly accurate because we only show you matches that we are highly confident belong to that individual. When no Record Matches are found, it means that we were unable to locate records that meet our confidence threshold. In order to maximize your results, we recommend you make it a habit to use the “Research this person” link on every profile on Geni that you want to learn more about. In the example above for Margaret Mitchell, we see there is 1 Record Match and 17 Smart Matches™. When we click on the “Research this person” link, we discover that there are many more results matching her name, birth and death dates! 

A summary view of the SuperSearch™ results is free, as is drilling-down and viewing full records from certain free data collections such as Find-A-Grave or the 1940 Federal U.S. census. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view other historical records in full. With instant access to SuperSearch™ as well as Record Matches and Smart Matches™, you will find your Data subscription more valuable than ever. Fast and automatic, researching your ancestry has never been easier. With more and more historical records being added to the tree everyday, Geni’s World Family Tree is quickly becoming an even better reference family tree for the whole world.

Keep an eye out for more enhancements soon to make your genealogy research on Geni a valuable and productive experience for all.

Charles Alfred Pillsbury

Charles A. Pillsbury was the founder and namesake of the Pillsbury Company and was a flour industrialist. He was a flour miller in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pillsbury was a Minnesota State Senator from 1877-1897 and held the chairmanship of the Finance Committee of the Senate.

Charles Alfred Pillsbury was born on December 3, 1842 in Warner, New Hampshire to George Alfred Pillsbury and Margaret Sprague Carleton. Pillsbury married Mary Ann Stinson who was the daughter of Captain Charles Stinson and Mary Ann Poore.

Pillsbury had created his own brand called “Pillsbury’s Best” and was claimed as the finest flour in the world. The use of a series of carefully gauged steel rolls in the crushing of grain into flour effected an entire revolution in all the large flour mills of the United States since it was efficient and produced excellent quality. In 1872, he had persuaded his father and his uncle, John S. Pillsbury, to join him in an expansion of the business. Pillsbury introduced a system of company profit sharing in addition to regular wages to his employees as a reward for their interest in the success of the business. As a consequence, no strikes ever interrupted the Pillsbury business.

John S. Pillsbury

John S. Pillsbury was a politician, businessman and philanthropist. He had served as the eighth Governor of Minnesota from 1876-1882. He often anonymously donated funds to causes he favored. Pillsbury helped the University of Minnesota recover from debt in its early years, later served as a regent and became known as “The Father of the University.”

Charles A. Pillsbury’s great-grandson is Charles A. Pillsbury, he is a lawyer and community activist in New Haven, Connecticut. He ran for United States Congress as a Green Party candidate in Connecticut in 2002. Pillsbury was college roommates with cartoonist Garry Trudeau at Yale University. The comic strip Doonesbury created by Trudeau used the combination of the word doone and the surname of Charles A. Pillsbury.

Check out Charles A. Pillsbury’s family tree and see how you may be related!

Thomas Gainsborough

On May 14, 1727, painter Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, England. Although he preferred to paint landscapes, Gainsborough’s portrait paintings were well regarded in English society. He painted the portraits of King George III and his queen, and became a founding member of the Royal Academy.

Thomas Gainsborough is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Thomas Gainsborough’s Geni Profile

Stephen Colbert

Happy birthday, Stephen Colbert! On May 13, 1964, The Colbert Report host was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. Named one of Time’s 100 most influential people of 2012, Colbert has won several Emmys, a Grammy and a Peabody Award for his work.

Did you know Colbert is the youngest of 11 children?

Check out Stephen Colbert’s family tree on Geni!

View Stephen Colbert’s Geni Profile

Victoria Woodhull

On May 10, 1872 Victoria Woodhull, a leader of the woman’s suffrage movement, became the first woman nominated for President of the United States. She was nominated by the then newly formed Equal Rights Party. In 1871, she had spoken publicly against the government being composed only of men; she proposed developing a new constitution and a new government.

In 1870, Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin were the first women to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street named Woodhull, Claflin & Company. They were also the first women to found a newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly which was primarily used to support Victoria Woodhull for President of the United States.

Victoria Woodhull is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Victoria Woodhull’s Geni Profile

Prince Rainier III

On May 9, 1949, Rainier III became the Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the death of his grandfather Prince Louis II. His mother Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois had renounced her rights to the throne in 1944 in favour of her son. Prince Rainier III was one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20th century having ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years. He was best known outside of Europe for having married actress Grace Kelly. Their son Prince Albert II became Sovereign Prince of Monaco when Prince Rainier III died on April 6, 2005.

Prince Rainier III is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Prince Rainier III’s Geni Profile

Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr.

On May 8, 1947, Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. died in London, England. Selfridge invested in building his own department store, Selfridges, in London when he was unimpressed with the quality of British retailers and had noticed that the large stores in London had not adopted the latest selling ideas that were being used in the United States.

He was the first to promote Christmas sales with the catchphrase “Only __ Shopping Days Until Christmas”, while he was working at Marshall Field’s department store.

Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Harry Gordon Selfridge’s Geni Profile

William D. Washburn

William Drew Washburn was an American politician and founded the Pillsbury-Washburn Milling Company, which later became the Pillsbury Company. He served in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

He was born on January 14, 1831 in Livermore, Maine to Israel Washburn and Martha Benjamin. He made a large fortune from his business ventures in lumber and flour milling, and by the 1880s he was among the wealthiest men in Minnesota. Washburn served as the first president of Soo Line Railroad from 1883 to 1889. He built a mansion in 1883 known as “Fair Oaks”, it was designed by E. Townsend Mix, who also designed Minneapolis’ Metropolitan Building but the mansion was eventually demolished in 1924 to make way for a park.

Elihu Washburn

Three of his seven brothers became politicians as well – Israel Washburn, Jr., Elihu Washburn and Cadwallader Washburn. Israel Washburn, Jr. was originally a member of the Whig Party, but later became a founding member of the Republican Party. The Republican Party  was formed when Israel was angry over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and had called a meeting of 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives for a discussion. Israel was the 29th Governor of Maine from 1861 to 1863, he helped recruit Federal troops from Maine during the American Civil War and in 1862 he attended the Loyal War Governors’ Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Abraham Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation. The town of Washburn, Maine is named in honor of Israel.

Cadwallader C. Washburn

Elihu Washburn was appointed as the United States Secretary of State in 1869 by President Ulysses S. Grant out of respect for his championship in the House during the Civil War and to give Washburn diplomatic clout after being appointed Minister to France. Although he was Secretary of State for only eleven days, he ended up being Minister to France for eight years. Washburn was known for his diplomatic integrity and for his humanitarian support of Americans and Germans in France during the Franco-Prussian War.

Cadwallader Washburn was the founder of General Mills. Prior to founding General Mills he was a United States Congressman from 1855 to 1861. He had served in the Union Army during the Civil War, becoming colonel of the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, brigadier general of Volunteers and major general in 1862. The city of Washburn, Wisconsin and Washburn County in northern Wisconsin was named after Cadwallader.

Check out William D. Washburn’s family tree and see how you may be related!

Robert Browning

On May 7, 1812, English poet Robert Browning was born in London, England. Widely recognized as a master of dramatic monologue, Browning is considered to be one of the formost poets of the Victorian age. The love story between Browning and his wife, writer Elizabeth Barrett is perhaps one of the most famous courtships in literature.

Check out Robert Browning’s family tree on Geni!

View Robert Browning’s Geni Profile

The Genealogy Sphere

• Preserving your photos for future generations of genealogists (Nj.com) – Tips on preserving your old family photos
• Woman traces long-lost ring to Boston relative (The Suffolk Times) – A woman finds a long lost family heirloom while gardening
• Is Juliana Margulies My Cousin? (Freud’s Butcher blog) – A family history research may have a possible connection to The Good Wife star
• Amanuensis Monday: One Girl’s Childhood During the Great Depression (Pages from the Ancestry Binders) – Wonderful story about growing up during the Great Depression
• Don’t Force the Household (Genealogy Tip of the Day) – Take caution when making assumptions about family relationships in pre-1880 census

On Geni

• Monday Recap for April 29, 2013 – Last week’s recap
• Record Matches and Smart Matches™ Lead to Exciting New Discoveries – Great stories from Geni users about their new family history discoveries
• Family Tree Tuesday – Lydia Field Emmet – Learn more about painter Lydia Field Emmet’s family tree
• All U.S. Census Records Now Available! - All U.S. census records are now available in your Record Matches on Geni!
• NGS 2013: Geni is Heading to Las Vegas! – We’re going to NGS 2013 conference. Will you be there?

Profile of the Day

• William Randolph Hearst
• Willem-Alexander
• Jose de Alencar
• Catherine the Great
• Margaret Mitchell

Sigmund Freud

On May 6, 1856, Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Austria. Best known as the founder of psychoanalysis, Freud’s contributions significantly impacted the field of psychology. His theories regarding the unconscious mind and mechanisms of repression continue to influence the field today.

Sigmund Freud is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Sigmund Freud’s Geni Profile

Margaret Mitchell

On May 3, 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her epic novel Gone With the Wind. Her book was a phenomenal success and in 1939, it was adapted to film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Today her novel and the film continue to have a strong following.

Margaret Mitchell is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Margaret Mitchell’s Geni Profile

In just one week, Geni will be at the

The conference is a great opportunity for genealogists and those interested in family history to meet and share ideas on how to advance family research.

Will you be at NGS? We love meeting Geni users – come find us at the MyHeritage booth #431 and meet the entire NGS 2013 team! Let us know you’re a Geni user and we’ll give you one of our famous “Who’s Your Daddy?” t-shirts for free!

Can’t make it to Vegas? You can receive instant updates by following us on Facebook and Twitter. And follow the official Twitter hashtag #ngs2013 for updates from other attendees too!

See you there!

Catherine the Great

On May 2, 1729, Catherine the Great was born. The most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, Catherine the Great came to power following a coup that overthrew her husband, Peter III. Her reign is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire, bringing the ideas of the Enlightenment to the country.

Catherine the Great is connected to 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Catherine the Great’s Geni Profile

This collection is the nation’s largest and most important set of records and includes a huge searchable index and all scanned images of the original census documents, spanning every decade from 1790-1940, covering some 520 million names.

José de Alencar

On May 1, 1829, Brazilian writer José de Alencar was born in Fortaleza, Brazil. Alencar is considered to be one of he most famous and influential Brazilian Romantic novelists of the 19th century. He was a major exponent of the literary tradition known as “Indianism.”

José de Alencar is connected to over 69 million people on Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View José de Alencar’s Geni Profile

Lydia Field Emmet

Lydia Field Emmet was best known for her work as a portraitist. Her paintings can be found hanging in the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other prestigious art galleries. In 1883, at the age of sixteen, she was commissioned to illustrate Henrietta Christian Wright’s children’s book Little Folk in Green. Emmet was an illustrator for Harper’s Bazaar magazine and was commissioned to paint an official portrait of the First Lady, Lou Henry Hoover from President Herbert Hoover which now hangs in the White House.

She was born on January 23, 1866 in New Rochelle, New York to merchant William Jenkins Emmet and illustrator Julia Colt Pierson. Thomas Addis Emmet was Lydia’s paternal great grandfather. He was a prominent lawyer who later served as New York State Attorney General. He was an Irish nationalist who held a pivotal position in the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen after the failure of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Emmet immigrated to the United States with his family after his younger brother, Robert Emmet, was hanged in 1803 for high treason by the British government for his attempt to implement an Irish rebellion. Robert Emmet became an heroic figure in Irish history.

Lydia’s paternal grandfather was Judge Robert Emmet who served as the captain of a cavalry regiment in the War of 1812. Her maternal grandfather was Josiah G. Pierson who was an inventor and is believed to have invented the first properly functioning nail-cutting machine, with a patent registered for the device in 1795. He was the son of Congressman Jeremiah Halsey Pierson.

Robert E. Sherwood

Jane Emmet de Glehn, Lydia’s sister, was also an artist and married Wilfrid de Glehn, a notable British impressionist painter. In 2007, Arden Galleries in Manhattan held an exhibition of paintings by five generations of women in the Emmet family which included Lydia’s great aunt Elizabeth Emmet and her great-great grandnieces Julia Townsend and Beulah Emmet.

Playwright, editor, and screenwriter Robert Emmet Sherwood was Lydia’s nephew, he was the son of her sister Rosina Emmet. Sherwood won four Pulitzer Prizes, one of them for his book Roosevelt and Hopkins which recounted his time working as a speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the film The Best Years of Our Lives.

Check out Lydia Field Emmet’s family tree and see how you may be related!

Willem-Alexander

Today the Netherlands celebrate as Willem-Alexander was sworn in as king after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated the throne, ending her rule of 33 years. The queen announced her intention to step down earlier in the year, stating it was time for the country to be led by a new generation. Willem-Alexander is the first Dutch King in more than 120 years.

King Willem-Alexander is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Willem-Alexander’s Geni Profile

Check out what some Geni users are saying about their latest discoveries:

Wendi Newman:

“The new matches between Geni and MH are not just Smart, but extremely intelligent and very easy to use. I’m adding credibility to my profiles with matches to records like census data and international birth/death records, finding potential cousins I didn’t even know about who are active on MH, and the BEST part is finding photographs of family members I might otherwise never know what they look like! Admittedly, I was hesitant to pay an additional data fee to MH at first, but the additional family information I’m gaining is invaluable.”

Jeff Gentes:

“The new matches are awesome! Finding a ton of new information. ”

Jeff’s most interesting find so far…

“Tough one, but I think a newspaper entry about the person’s wedding. It described many of the family members including the parents, who I didn’t have listed. This led to some great break throughs.”

Ashley Odell:

“These are easily the very best development at Geni in terms of expanding research capabilities since I joined in 2007. I can’t get over how much fun the newspaper records are, and also how beautifully the matching works. The only problem I have right now is figuring out which new leads to chase, because I have so many branches that I can expand dramatically now, but only so many hours in a day! Guess I’ll just have to spend more of them on Geni.

I found a rural Vermont newspaper article from 1972 in which my great-aunt was complaining about a bear that kept wandering through her yard and eating her berries. In other articles, I also found the name of the school where she was a teacher and the names of some of her cousins who came from Massachusetts to visit one summer.

You can find names, dates, and locations on just about any genealogy website. But now with Record Matches on Geni, you can find records that capture more personal stories, which are helping me get to know my ancestors and what happened in their lives better.”

And the new Record Matches and Smart Matches™ are just the start – you never know where they might lead. Read how Ashley learned more…

“By following a lead through a Record Match, I just found this really fantastic photo of my great-great-uncle Marcus (front left, seated) and the Jamaica, Vermont baseball team from I think 1922. (His cousin Wales is in there, too, but I don’t know which one he is.)*

I knew the story from local lore — the tiny town of Jamaica beat the “big city” Brattleboro in the West River Valley baseball championship, something the old-timers still talk about all the time — but had never seen a picture. And in looking at the picture, I recognize the trophy in the front center from having seen it at the Jamaica Historical Foundation so many times.

*Could* I have found it without Record Match? Probably; it’s on the UVM website. But *would* I have? I doubt it, because a) it never would have occurred to me to go looking and b) the UVM website doesn’t give names with the picture. And yet, there he is, in uniform! Very cool. ”

We’re glad Record Matches and Smart Matches™ are so useful to our users and we’ll continue to make improvements going forward. Have you checked out your new Matches?

*Update: From Ashley, “By the way, I’ve since figured out that it was Hubert, not Wales, and that he’s the guy seated on the far right of the middle row. Thanks, Geni”

The Genealogy Sphere

• Geni.com adds Historical Records to Advance Family Tree Collaboration (Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter) – Dick Eastman shares the good news with the genealogy community
• Geni.com adds Record Matches and Smart Matches (Geneamusings.com) – Randy Seaver checks out his latest Record Matches on Geni
• Patricia Ward Kelly on her late husband Gene Kelly’s Irish heritage – and why his mother tried to hide it (Independent.ie) – The wife of Gene Kelly shares the story of researching her late husband’s Irish heritage
• WWI prisoner of war postcard found (BBC News) – A postcard sent home by a captured WWI soldier is found
• Genealogy is Anthropology ((going) The Extra Yad) – Excellent article exploring the parallels between genealogy and anthropology

On Geni

• Monday Recap for April 22, 2013 – Last week’s recap
• Introducing Record Matches and Smart Matches™ for Your Family Tree – We’re excited to bring you perhaps the most important new feature on Geni yet

Profile of the Day

• Al Gore
• Shirley Temple
• Milton Hershey
• Edward R. Murrow
• Carol Burnett

William Randolph Hearst

On April 29, 1863, American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco, California. As the leading newspaper publisher of the late 19th century and early 20th century, Hearst exercised enormous political influence over the American public. Today his mansion, Hearst Castle, is now a California State Monument and widely popular tourist attraction.

William Randolph Hearst is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View William Randolph Hearst’s Geni Profile

Carol Burnett

Happy birthday, Carol Burnett! Today, the comedy icon turns 80. She was born in San Antonio, Texas to Jodie and Louise Burnett. After her parents divorced, she moved to Hollywood with her grandmother. Best known for her long-running TV variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, Burnett has enjoyed a long and successful career in Hollywood. Today, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located in front of the Hollywood Pacific Theater, where she was once fired from her job as an usherette.

Do you remember watching The Carol Burnett Show?

Carol Burnett is connected to over 69 million people on Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Carol Burnett’s Geni Profile

Edward R. Murrow

On April 25, 1908, American broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow was born in North Carolina. Murrow first gained prominence during World War II. Millions of Americans followed his radio broadcasts for the latest news on the war. Considered one of journalism’s greatest figures, Murrow was known for his honesty and integrity in delivering the news.

Edward R. Murrow is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Edward R. Murrow’s Geni Profile

Milton Hershey

On April 24, 1907 Milton S. Hershey opened Hersheypark which is a family theme park founded by Hershey originally for the exclusive use of his employees. He was the founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company and Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Did you know that Hershey and his wife Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney were to travel on the Titanic? Kitty Hershey was ill at the time so they cancelled their reservations. A copy of the check Hershey wrote to the White Star Line as a deposit for a first class stateroom on the Titanic is on display at the Hershey Museum.

Milton S. Hershey is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Milton S. Hershey’s Geni Profile

Image credit: Wikipedia

Two new technologies for Geni

Record Matching automatically finds matching historical records for your family tree on Geni from MyHeritage’s growing collection of billions of newspaper articles, birth, death, census and other records. Add color to your family history with the first and only service in the world to automatically discover historical newspaper articles about the people in your family tree. Save yourself valuable time in your research and shine new light on your ancestors’ lives and personalities with new revelations right at your fingertips.

Smart Matching automatically finds matches for your family tree on Geni in MyHeritage family trees so you can discover new ancestors and relatives, connect with other family tree owners, and reunite with long-lost family members. With more than 1.2 billion profiles on 27 million MyHeritage family trees around the world, you’re bound to make an exciting discovery – many discoveries in fact. Sophisticated name-matching technology uses synonyms, phonetics and international variations to find your relatives even when spelled differently or written in another language in other family trees.

Record Matching and Smart Matching work together to make each other better. If a person in your tree on Geni has a Smart Match, the system will use the extra information in that Smart Match to get you more Record Matches. As you add new information from matches to your tree on Geni, including new relatives that you discover, you will receive more matches; it’s a cycle that will help you improve and grow your family tree. 

How to use the new matches

Whenever you view a profile or family tree on Geni, the system checks in the background for relevant matches, and automatically displays them right on the tree or the profile. Visit your Merge Center to view a convenient list of all matches in your tree.

 The new Merge Center (click to zoom)

New matches are found all the time as MyHeritage keeps adding more historical records and family tree profiles, so the matches you see today are just the beginning and there is much more to look forward to.

Let’s take a look at these new Matches in action.

Record Matches

Below you can see the new buttons for Tree Matches, Record Matches and Smart Matches on a profile.

 Matches shown on a Geni profile

The Tree Matches (leftmost box out of the three) are matches with other profiles on Geni – these have not changed. Next to them are the buttons for Record Matches (middle box in brown) and Smart Matches (rightmost box in green). 

Click on the Record Match button to view a list of matching records, or the Smart Match button to view matching MyHeritage tree profiles. Record Matches and Smart Matches are displayed on a single page, with Record Matches at the top followed by Smart Matches. The page is co-branded MyHeritage and Geni.

List of matches (click to zoom) 

In the top left corner there is a box summarizing the main information about this person and close relatives as known on Geni. This makes it easy for you to compare this information at a glance with the information provided by the matches.

The matches are listed on one page, Record Matches followed by Smart Matches, and you can change the criteria by which they are sorted. By default, matches are listed by confidence so that matches listed at the top are more likely to be correct. But worry not, the matching technologies of MyHeritage have a 97% accuracy so you will rarely encounter incorrect matches.

The recommended modus operandi with your matches is to review them all, glean as much information from each match by adding it to your tree on Geni, and then confirm correct matches and reject wrong ones.

There are three buttons on each match in the list to facilitate this: Review match, Confirm this match (checkmark), and Reject this match (X). Use the Review match button to view all of the details for that record on its own record page, including an image of the record if there is one, such as for a census record or newspaper. It is recommended to drill down into every match rather than using only the abbreviated summary in the list. There are many types of records that include a scanned image of the original document, so don’t miss them. You can confirm or reject each match from the record page or from the list of matches. Use the Confirm this match (checkmark) button to add that record to the matching Geni profile. This will add the record as a source to the profile and add the record to the Confirmed Matches module on the profile. Keep in mind that you will have to enter any new information manually to the Geni profile; in the future you’ll be able to add new information from the record to the Geni profile in a special data extraction screen with a few clicks. Use the Reject this match (X) button to indicate that the record is not a correct match for that Geni profile. As you confirm or reject the matches, the counter numbers of pending matches on Geni will automatically be updated. Rejected matches will disappear and confirmed matches will be associated with the respective Geni profiles. Work your way through all matches this way. Then, as MyHeritage adds new content, you will get new matches and new discoveries will present themselves to you. 

Viewing the list of matches is free, as is drilling-down and viewing full records from certain free data collections such as Find-A-Grave or the 1940 Federal US census. A MyHeritage Data subscription is required to view other historical records in full, and to confirm matches. MyHeritage Data subscriptions work on both Geni and MyHeritage and also provide unlimited access to MyHeritage SuperSearch, a powerful search engine for historical records with more than 4 billion records.

Here’s an example of a Record Match from The Salt Lake Tribune, matching Charles Brent Hancock published in November 26, 1921, soon after his death:

 A record page showing a newspaper Record Match (click to zoom)

Typical to many newspaper articles, a lot of information is provided that may be new to the Geni tree. For example, this specific article mentions the person’s cause of death, names his parents C. B. Hancock and Samantha P. Rawson Hancock who are missing in the tree on Geni. The article also names his wives and all his surviving relatives. Lots of new material here for the Geni tree, from a 1921 newspaper article delivered automatically.

A simple click of the Confirm button will add the record to Charles Hancock’s profile on Geni. A thumbnail of the document will now appear as a Confirmed Match on the profile’s page. When you confirm a match, all users benefit, as they will see the record and a summary of the data in the record. Viewing the full record will be free in some collections, such as Find-a-Grave and the 1940 U.S. census, and in others, it will require users to get a Data subscription. This effort makes the World Family Tree on Geni better, because each record need only be associated with a profile once, to benefit all users. 

The screenshot below shows how the profile will look on Geni after a match has been confirmed with it:

 Geni profile with a confirmed match

Confirming a Record Match also automatically creates a source and citation for the record and adds them to the profile. This is important for keeping track of the evidence that has allowed the user to reach the conclusions entered in the Geni profile.  Sources and citations are vital in genealogy but because of the extra work many users still don’t add them. We hope that by introducing one-click confirmations that create such sources and citations, their quantity and quality will increase substantially in the World Family Tree. Also note that citations come with all information from the record for future reference.

Source and citation created for a confirmed match 

Smart Matches

Smart Matches are similar to Record Matches, but they compare your tree to over 1.2 billion MyHeritage family tree profiles, growing at more than one million new profiles per day. These matches are separated from Record Matches for several reasons. A match with another family tree is for some users more exciting, because that other tree has an owner who might be an unknown relative of yours: someone to get in touch with and learn more from. Historical records usually don’t provide another user for you to get in touch with. For other users, family trees are less reliable than historical records like census and birth records, and are treated with more doubt. For those reasons, Smart Matches and Record Matches are listed separately so you can handle them separately with different expectations. Always remember, however, that  a Smart Match can help you discover new information about your relatives; you’ll also find new relatives from the MyHeritage tree that you can add to your tree on Geni. So for every Smart Match you get, don’t look only at the person but also at the close relatives. Let’s look at an example, this time starting from a tree rather than an individual profile.

Below you can see what it looks like when you have matches in your tree view.

Matches shown in the tree

The number you see in the tree is the total number of matches (Tree Matches + Record Matches + Smart Matches) for that profile. Hover the mouse over the magnifying glass to learn more about the matches and see their breakdown by type. Just like on a profile, click on the green Smart Matches button to view the list of Smart Matches for that profile. This will take you directly to the Smart Matches section of the list of matches for this profile. 

 Accessing a person’s Smart Matches from the tree

Just like with Record Matches, when viewing Smart Matches you can Review the match, Confirm the match (checkmark), or Reject the match (X). Always confirm if the match is correct and reject if the match is incorrect. If the match is correct but does not add value, also confirm, do not reject it. Use the Review Match button to view all of the details for that match on its own page, including birth and death dates and locations and a list of the immediate family members. Always remember to review every match because it is often where you can find more relatives to add who are missing on Geni. You can either confirm or reject the match from that page too. Use the Confirm (checkmark) button to add that match to the Confirmed Matches module on the corresponding Geni profile. Confirming a Smart Match offers you the choice of whether or not to create a source for it within Geni. Simply select “Yes” to create a source within the Geni profile. By default, sources are not created for confirmed Smart Matches. Opinions vary and the debate is sometimes heated on whether another family tree can be a source. Our advice is that if a Smart Match is correct but does not provide new information that you can add to Geni, confirm it but don’t make it into a source. If, however, you have found valuable information in a Smart Match that has led you to add more information or more people to the Geni tree, then you should confirm it and make it into a source, and other users will be able to follow where you have taken the information from. Since family trees owners do copy information from each other, it is better to have each taker pointing at the source rather than not leaving any information on its provenance.

Here’s a Smart Match example:

A “Titanic” Smart Match

In the above Smart Match, you can see that the matching profile on MyHeritage has some information that was missing from the Geni profile. Here we not only have a picture of Daniel Warner Marvin and information on the city in which he was born, but we also learn an interesting anecdote about Marvin – he was once friends with Thomas Edison; He and his wife Mary had their wedding in the home of the bride’s parents by the Reverend Dr. John Caughey of the Harlem Presbyterian Church on March 17, 1912; They returned from their European honeymoon aboard the RMS Titanic. Although Daniel Warner met with an unfortunate fate on board the Titanic, his documentation in the World Family Tree is now about to get a whole lot better.

 Optionally creating a source on Geni from a confirmed Smart Match

A simple click of the Confirm button will add the Smart Match to your relative’s profile on Geni and give you the option to create a source within the profile. The profile photo from the MyHeritage tree will appear in the Confirmed Match module on the profile’s page. You can manually add the new details found in the match to your Geni profile. You can also add any immediate family members that aren’t already on your tree. In the future, you’ll be able to add this information with just a few clicks.

The screenshot below shows how the profile will look on Geni after a Smart Match has been confirmed, a source created and the information from the match has been added: 

 Geni profile with a confirmed Smart Match

You’ll notice that in addition to the Smart Match photo, the profile now has a more detailed birth location. The new anecdote and the story about his marriage and death was added to the profile’s About section to give everyone a greater insight into the life of Daniel Warner Marvin. This is a great way to add new information to your tree. As you confirm matches and add new information and profiles to your tree, more matches will be found, in a virtuous cycle.

Contacting another tree owner 

Another powerful benefit of Smart Matches is the ability to contact the MyHeritage Site Manager (the tree owner) to connect with new relatives and exchange more information that you can add to Geni. Contacting other users on MyHeritage requires a Data subscription. To contact the Site Manager of your Smart Match, click on the Contact link at the right of the page under “Site Manager.” A MyHeritage inbox will open for you to compose and send your initial message. Smart Matches are a great way to make new discoveries and reunite with long lost family.

Please note that initially, Geni users will receive Smart Matches with MyHeritage trees, but not vice versa. We are working to make the matches completely mutual and this will take a few more months to complete.

Newspapers

Newspaper articles can add a lot of color to your family tree. They can reveal something about your ancestor that you would have never found just looking at vital records. 

Here’s an example of an unexpected discovery found for the family tree of MyHeritage founder & CEO, Gilad Japhet. He discovered a Record Match for his relative, Gertrude Sarah Levin, who married Solomon Dietch. Gilad knew little else about them until he made this unexpected discovery. The Record Match was a newspaper from Kansas in the 1930’s. It included their wedding photo and the intriguing caption, “Love needed no words.” It turns out that the wedding was conducted in sign-language as they were both deaf mute. This is just another great example of how Record Matches add color to what we know about the lives of our ancestors and relatives.

What next?

We’re committed at Geni to building the largest, most accurate and best documented family tree of the world. Historical records are key to creating a world tree of the highest quality. The historical records on MyHeritage are a very large and extensive collection, rapidly growing, some of them exclusive and found nowhere else. 

MyHeritage is adding more data at a fast pace. For example, next week MyHeritage will be adding the entire collection of U.S. Federal Censuses conducted in each decade from 1790 to 1930, with scanned original images, a total of more than 530 million names, and all this data will be matched automatically to all the Geni profiles! The collections are global in nature and not USA-only. New collections are added every month. With a wealth of historical records, the most powerful technology in the market to match them to your family tree on Geni, the ability to associate records with profiles and create sources in one click, and Smart Matches with more than a billion family tree profiles, the World Family Tree on Geni will quickly become an even better reference family tree for the whole world.

We think Record Matches and Smart Matches will be of tremendous value for every Geni user and we can’t wait to have you check them out. In the future, we’ll provide tools to help you add information from matching records and trees into your tree on Geni, including new relatives, in just a few clicks (until then you’ll need to add new information manually). As with any new release, please excuse us for any glitches, that may characterize the initial launch of this important new functionality, and be sure to send us your feedback and suggestions.

A Data subscription is required for viewing all historical records (except those provided free).

A single Data subscription provides full access to all Smart Matches and Record Matches, allows contacting tree owners, and gives unlimited access to the MyHeritage SuperSearch engine for historical records. For a limited time, Data subscriptions are discounted 36% off the regular price ($76.10 instead of $119.40 per year). Don’t miss this opportunity to discover more about your family history at such an affordable low price. The 36% introductory discount will be lifted soon after the US census records are added, so act now to secure this low price for yourself. 

Look for the Record Match and Smart Match buttons on your relatives’ profiles and see what new discoveries await you. View your Matches now!

Enjoy,
The combined teams of Geni and MyHeritage

Shirley Temple

On April 23, 1928, child star Shirley Temple was born in Santa Monica, California. She began her film career at the age of three, and soon found international fame as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. As an adult, Temple enjoyed great success as a diplomat. What’s your favorite Shirley Temple movie?

Shirley Temple is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Shirley Temple’s Geni Profile

• Oldest child doesn’t always ‘know it all’ about family history (Bangor Daily News) – Keep in mind younger siblings may know some stories older siblings may not have heard
• Long-lost brother reunited for the first time in 80 years after being fostered apart as babies (Daily Mail UK) – Two long lost brothers find each other 80 years after they were separated
• Fraternal Orders and Your Family History Research (4yourfamilystory.com) – Carline Pointer shares some great tips about using fraternal order records in your family history research
• Memories of WWII: A German Family’s Tangled Wartime History (Spielgel Online) – The story of a family’s complicated place in World War II history
• Genealogy: Search for a grave leads to a family he never knew (Coastal Observer) – A man searching for his sister’s grave discovers long lost relatives
• No longer saved for generations, family heirlooms are being shed (StarTribune) – More and more people are parting with family heirlooms

On Geni

• Monday Recap for April 15, 2013 - Last week’s recap
• Family Tree Tuesday – Francis Preston Blair, Sr. – Learn more about Globe editor Francis Preston Blair
• Activities for Your Next Family Reunion – Check out some fun activities for your next family reunion

Profile of the Day

• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Charles Chaplin
• Alexander Cartwright
• Albert Einstein
• Charles Darwin

Al Gore

It’s Earth Day! In honor of the day we’re highlighting Vice President Al Gore, who is perhaps one of the most notable environmental figures today. Credited with re-energizing the environmental movement, Gore’s highly popular and award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, brought global awareness to the Earth’s changing climate.  In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless environmental activism.

Al Gore is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Al Gore’s Geni Profile

Are you planning a family reunion in the near future? Here are some fun activities to get your entire family involved in learning about your family history.

1. Fill in the family tree

Here’s a fun game to get some of the younger members of your family interested in their genealogy: make copies of blank family trees for each youngster and have them ask relatives to help them fill out the tree. This is a good way to get children to catch the genealogy bug early. You can even make it a competition and see who can fill out the tree the most.

2. Who’s the baby?

Everybody loves seeing pictures of babies. Print out the baby pictures for each of your relatives and if you have them, of your ancestors, and have your family guess who is in the picture. Not only will your family have fun seeing cute baby pictures, but it presents the perfect opportunity to share family stories of your relatives when they were young.

3. Bring those family recipes to life

No family gathering is complete without food. Many families have recipes that have been passed down between generations. Bring those recipes to life by cooking your family dishes for all to sample. If possible, invite your relatives to bring their own dishes to share. You may find that each dish has a story behind it. What could be more fun than to learn about your heritage while filling your tummy with homemade deliciousness?

Have you been to a family reunion? Share some of your family reunion experiences with us in the comments below!

Image credit: Erin

Charles Darwin

On April 19, 1882, Charles Darwin died at his home, the Down House.  In his groundbreaking publication, On the Origin of Species, Darwin introduced his theory of evolution to the world. The book and his future publications would prove to form the foundation of our current understanding of how man evolved through the process of natural selection.

Considered on of the most influential figures in history, Darwin is buried in Westminister Abby, near other influential scientists Isaac Newton and John Herschel.

Charles Darwin is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Charles Darwin’s Geni Profile

Albert Einstein

Today we remember renowned physicist Albert Einstein, who died April 18, 1955 at the age of 76. Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein chose to remain in the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany during his visit to the U.S. in 1933. In 1940, Einstein became an American citizen. One of the most brilliant minds in history, Einstein’s scientific breakthroughs profoundly influenced our understanding of the world today.

Albert Einstein is connected to over 69 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Albert Einstein’s Geni Profile

Alexander Cartwright

On April 17, 1820, Alexander Cartwright, a volunteer firefighter, was born in New York City. Referred to as a “father of baseball,” it is believed Cartwright is the first person to develop a new set of rules that would form the basis for modern baseball, including the use of a diamond-shaped field. For decades, controversy surrounded the origins of America’s national pastime; its invention wrongly attributed to Civil War hero Abner Doubleday. On June 3, 1953, the 83rd United States Congress officially declared Cartwright the inventor of the modern game of baseball.

Are you a baseball fan? Alexander Cartwright is connected to over 68 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?
 

View Alexander Cartwright’s Geni Profile

Francis Preston Blair

Francis Preston Blair, Sr. was an American journalist and politician. He was made editor of the Washington Globe in 1830 which was the recognized organ of the Andrew Jackson party. Blair was a member of Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet” that gave him a powerful influence. The Globe was the administration organ until 1841 and the chief Democratic organ until 1845. In 1849, Blair ceased to be its editor.  He was convinced after the Mexican War that slavery should not be extended beyond where it was currently allowed even though he held slaves. In the 1860 Republican convention Blair supported the nomination of Abraham Lincoln and took it upon himself to advise Lincoln.

The city of Silver Spring, Maryland was was founded and named after Blair’s summer home. He had encountered a “mica-flecked” spring in the vicinity of Seventh Street Pike in 1840 which he liked so much that he bought the surrounding land and created a summer home for his family which he called “Silver Spring.”

Francis Preston Blair, Sr. was born on April 12, 1791 in Abingdon, Virginia to James Blair and Elizabeth Preston Smith. He was married to Elizabeth Gist and had three sons, Montgomery Blair, James Blair and Francis Preston Blair, Jr. His daughter Elizabeth Blair married Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee of the United States Navy who had commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron from 1862-1864 and was a cousin of Robert E. Lee. 

Montgomery Blair

Montgomery Blair was a politician and lawyer from Maryland. He was an abolitionist and a loyal member of the Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He served as Postmaster-General in Lincoln’s Cabinet from 1861-1864. He married Mary Woodbury, she was the daughter of Levi Woodbury who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a U.S. Senator, Governor of New Hampshire and cabinet member in three administrations. Montgomery and Mary were the great-grandparents of actor Montgomery Clift.

Francis Preston Blair, Jr. was a politician as well and a Union Army general during the American Civil War. He represented Missouri in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for Vice President in 1868. He was an accidental witness to an incident in a famous homicide case in 1870 while he was staying at the then famous Fifth Avenue Hotel. Blair had woken up to cries of help from across the street and watched from his hotel window as two men ran out of a brownstone mansion across the street. They were two of the sons of Benjamin Nathan, the Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange, who had been bludgeoned to death the previous night. The mystery of the homicide was never solved.

Benjamin Gratz Brown was the great nephew of Elizabeth Gist, but was also related to Blair through their common ancestors John Preston and Elizabeth Patton. He was a Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party Vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of 1872. In 1856, he fought a duel on Bloody Island in the Mississippi River with Thomas C. Reynolds who was then the St. Louis District Attorney over the slavery issue. Reynolds was not hurt, but Brown was shot in the leg and limped for the rest of his life.

Did you know Blair House, the official state guest house for the President of the United States at one time belonged to Francis Preston Blair, Sr.? Blair acquired the property in 1836 during his time in Washington when he was serving Andrew Jackson, the house was purchased by the U.S. government in 1942.

Check out Francis Preston Blair, Sr.’s family tree and see how you may be related!

Charlie Chaplin

On April 16, 1889, film icon Charlie Chaplin was born in London, England. One of the biggest stars of the Silent Era, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. In 1919, he founded United Artist film studio with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford.

Help build Charlie Chaplin’s family tree to see how you’re related!

View Charlie Chaplin’s Geni Profile

The Genealogy Sphere

• Warning! Don’t do THIS (Nutfield Genealogy blog) – A good warning to all genealogists – keep your old paper journals
• Medial records useful in genealogical research (Examiner.com) – Great explanation on how medical records can be helpful in genealogical research
• Auschwitz survivor’s social media search for long-lost twin (CNN) – Auschwitz survivor Menachem Bodner looks to Facebook to find his long lost twin brother
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jon Hamm’s Roots (The Huffington Post) – Genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak traces Mad Men star Jon Hamm’s roots
• Grandfather’s hidden photos inspire Holocaust film (MSN News) – A man’s discovery of his late grandfather’s photographs inspires him to make a documentary
• Toad Doctor, Leech Bait & Eater of Mortal Sin: How Our Ancestors Earned a Living in the 18th – 19th Centuries (The Huffington Post) – Did your ancestors have any of these unusual occupations?
• A soldier’s long-lost Civil War ring is returned to his family in Pennsylvania (The Washington Post) – A relic hunter returns a long-lost Civil War ring to family
• Newbiggin Genealogy Project aims to map town’s ancestry (BBC News) – A man aims to trace the family history of an entire town

On Geni

• Monday Recap for April 8, 2013 – Last week’s recap
• Family Tree Tuesday – John Huston – Learn more about famed director John Huston’s family tree
• Your Family History Discoveries - Have any interesting family history discoveries? Share your stories with us!

Profile of the Day

• Margaret Thatcher
• Annette Funicello
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Gustav Vigeland
• Ulysses S. Grant

Jean-Paul Sartre is connected to over 68 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Jean-Paul Sartre’s Geni Profile

It’s always interesting to hear these type of stories and several of you had a few to share of your own on Facebook. Here are a couple we wanted to share with you below.

From Karen Macagno:

About 8 years ago I met a young Italian fellow named Flavio online. It turned out that we shared a common ancestor, Tommaso di Saluzzo (my 23rd great-grandfather, died in the 1200s.) It seems that Flavio’s line continues through Tommaso’s son, who remained in Italy, and my line through his daughter, who married an English noble. So I thought it was pretty amazing to find my far-off, distant “Italian connection.” But then the story gets…interesting. Seems that Flavio’s great-grandfather was from the same small town (Villafalletto, Cuneo) as my husband’s dad. In fact, my husband’s great-uncle and Flavio’s 2nd great uncle traveled *together* to the USA in 1900!

From Kristin Roca:

I tried to research my 2nd great aunt whose name is Hilda Arendal Hanson (named after Arendal Norway where our relatives come from) She grew up in Patten Maine (1900′s-1930′s) where her father was a doctor. I popped onto facebook and found so many people who knew her or her father and even was able to get never seen before pictures of her and her senior yearbook! I also learned her father saved the life of a mother and child during childbirth-The mother and father being so grateful allowed my 2nd great uncle,the dr to name the baby-GALEN. Well, Galen is still alive (in his 80′s) and also the longest living member of his family. His sister wrote to me to thank my family because if the mother died during his birth she and 4 other siblings would not even be here-a whole family would have been wiped out. Amazing!

Do you have similar stories to share? If you’re interested in sharing your stories or breakthroughs with us, send it to community@geni.com.

Ulysses S. Grant

On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter. For four years, the war divided the nation. Under the command of Ulysses S. Grant, the Union armies defeated the Confederate armies of the South and brought an end to the war. After the Civil War, Grant would serve two consecutive terms as the 18th President of the United States.

Ulysses S. Grant is connected to over 68 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View Ulysses S. Grant’s Geni Profile

Gustav Vigeland

On April 11, 1869, Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland was born in Mandal, Norway. Considered one of the most important artists in Norwegian history, many of Vigeland’s lifeworks can be found in Norway’s Vigeland Park, the world’s largest sculpture park made by a single artist.

Did you know Vigeland was also the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal?

Check out Gustav Vigeland’s family tree and help connect him to over 68 million people on Geni!

View Gustav Vigeland’s Geni Profile

F. Scott Fitzgerald

On April 10, 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published. Widely regarded as a “Great American Novel,” the literary classic perfectly captured the essence of the Roaring Twenties. Today, the novel is considered Fitzgerald’s best work.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is connected to over 68 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?

View F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Geni Profile

John Huston

John Huston was a film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote screenplays and directed films which are considered classics such as The Maltese Falcon (1941),  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Misfits (1961), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). Most of Huston’s films were adaptions of novels that often depicted a “heroic quest” as in Moby Dick or The Red Badge of Courage.

John Huston was born on August 5, 1906 in Nevada, Missouri to Walter and Rhea (Gore) Huston. Walter and Reah divorced in 1913 and as a result John spent his childhood living in boarding schools, but would travel with each of his parents separately during summer vacations. Walter Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario and of Scottish and Irish descent. He began as a vaudeville actor and later a stage and screen actor. He was directed by his son, John in the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Anjelica Huston

John married five times and with his fourth wife Enrica Soma he had actress Angelica Huston and Walter “Tony” Huston. Although Soma’s daughter writer and editor Allegra Huston was not John’s biological daughter, he treated her one of his own. He had another son, actor and director Danny Huston with Zoe Sallis.

Huston’s grandson, Jack Huston also became an actor best known for his role on Boardwalk Empire as Richard Harrow. Jack’s parents are Walter “Tony” Huston and Lady Margot Lavinia Cholmondeley.

Did you know three generations of Huston’s won Academy Awards? Walter Huston won for Best Supporting Actor for the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John Huston won for Best Director for the same film making them the first father and son to win at the same ceremony; and Anjelica Huston won for Best Supporting Actress for the film Prizzi’s Honor.

Check out John Huston’s family tree and see how you may be related!