February 2015

It’s finally the end of February! Check out our recap of some of the most interesting articles from this month: 10 Odd Jobs From the World War II Military Classification Guide / mental_floss The Genealogy Sphere 10 Odd Jobs From the World War II Military Classification Guide (mental_floss) – Interesting list of odd jobs from WWII Whatever happened to ‘Cateryn, Jayne and Amee’? (DailyMail UK) – Haunting graffiti scrawled by tragic young sisters found on… Read the full story

Happy birthday, Josh Groban! Today the popular singer turns 34. Groban was born Joshua Winslow Groban on February 27, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. His younger brother, Chris, was born on his fourth birthday. He first sang in public in the seventh grade and continued to pursue an education in theater and music. Today, Groban is a best-selling artists with over 25 million records sold worldwide. He’s also made several notable and hilarious appearances on television…. Read the full story

Do you have a favorite pair of blue jeans? On this day in 1829, Levi Strauss, the founder of the first company to manufacture blue jeans, was born in Buttenheim, Germany. Strauss immigrated to America in 1847 to work for his brothers’ dry goods business in New York. After gaining his American citizenship, Strauss headed west to open his own branch of the family’s business in San Francisco, California. The city had become the commercial hub of the California… Read the full story

Geni is the perfect place to collaborate on your family tree with your family. The easiest way to do that is to invite your relatives to join so they can contribute and help preserve your family history. But did you know you can also share your tree with other people not on Geni? Geni enables you to share a limited read-only view of your tree with your friends outside of Geni, either by sending them a link… Read the full story

Congratulations to Julianne Moore for finally winning her first Oscar! This year marked Moore’s fifth Academy Award nomination and her first trip to the podium. Moore won Best Actress for her moving performance of a woman suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s in the film Still Alice. She was born Julie Anne Smith at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina to Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, and Anne Love, a psychologist and social worker from Greenock,… Read the full story

Today we remember abolitionist Frederick Douglas, who died on February 20, 1895. Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, Douglass chose to celebrate it on February 14. At the age of 12, his master’s wife, Sophia Auld, began teaching him the alphabet, despite state law that prohibited teaching slaves to read. He continued to secretly teach himself to read and write, believing that “knowledge is… Read the full story

Remember those school projects about your family history? Whether it was writing a story or mapping out your family tree, you’ve likely taken that dip into our family’s past in school. When Geni Curator Randy Schoenberg’s son, Joey, came home with such a project, Randy saw it as a great opportunity to make some new family connections. With the news that his son’s fifth-grade class was participating in the worldwide “My Family Story” competition sponsored by Beit Hatfusot, the Museum of the… Read the full story

Do you remember reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? On this day 130 years ago, the classic novel by Mark Twain was published for the first time in the U.S. Considered one of the greatest authors of all time, Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. His childhood experiences in the Mississippi River port town were the basis for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry… Read the full story

What an amazing few days at RootsTech! This year saw the largest crowd ever with over 20,000 genealogists and family historians coming together for the largest genealogy conference in the world. The Geni and MyHeritage teams together again It was wonderful to be together again with our MyHeritage family, many of whom flew in from across the world! With offices in Israel, Utah and California, it’s a rare treat to have this many of us together in… Read the full story

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Will you be sending a Valentine to a special someone? If you need a little bit of inspiration, check out these Valentine’s Day greetings from the early 20th century: Will You Be Mine? Library of Congress, 1919 To My Valentine Library of Congress, 1919 Funny Valentine National Library of Norway, c.1900 Say You’ll Be Mine “Pray Sweetheart, send me just a line to say you’ll be my Valentine.” Library… Read the full story

Today we remember author Laura Ingalls Wilder, who died on this day in 1957 at the age of 90. See what you can learn from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s death certificate here. Born in a log cabin outside of Pepin, Wisconsin, Wilder’s life in the Big Woods with her pioneer family formed the basis of her autobiographical series of “Little House” books. Her stories proved to be immensely popular with readers and inspired the hit television show, Little House on the Prairie,… Read the full story

The Geni team will be heading to RootsTech this week from February 11-14. We will be joining the MyHeritage team in Salt Lake City, Utah to share with everyone the latest developments in the World Family Tree. RootsTech is one of the largest family history events in the entire world! This unique genealogy conference brings techies and genealogists of all skill levels together to discover new technologies for researching your family history. Many hands-on presentations and… Read the full story

On February 9, 1773, William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States, was born on the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia. In honor of his birthday, check out these interesting facts about him: His father, Benjamin Harrison, was a member of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was the last U.S. President to be born as a British subject before American independence. Harrison briefly established a distillery to produce whisky…. Read the full story

Today we remember former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr on the 259th anniversary of his birth. Burr was the third Vice President of the United States, serving during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term. History perhaps best remembers him for fatally shooting his greatest rival, Alexander Hamilton, during a duel in 1804. Although charges for the illegal duel were eventually dropped, Burr’s political career never recovered. Did you know Burr was once tried for treason? According to accusations, Burr sought… Read the full story

Do you have any baseball players in your family tree? On this day in 1934, baseball player Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. Henry Louis Aaron was the third of eight children born to Herbert and Estella Aaron. He spent much of his youth dedicated to baseball, and in 1951, quit school to play for the Negro Baseball League’s Indianapolis Clowns. Soon he caught the eye of the MLB and signed to play for the… Read the full story

Do you have any aviators in your family tree? On this day in 1902, pilot Charles A. Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan. From a young age, Lindbergh was interested in mechanics and aviation. In 1927, he became the first American aviator to fly the Atlantic solo nonstop from the United States to Europe. He made the flight in a custom-built monoplane called the Spirit of St. Lois. This amazing achievement instantly made him famous around the world…. Read the full story

Many countries around the world have their own set of laws or customs for naming children. The reasons behind these policies varies widely from country to country. Image: Nationaal Archief, flickr Check out these interesting naming laws from around the world: ICELAND Parents in Iceland may only choose names approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee. The Personal Names Register includes about 1,800 approved Icelandic names for each gender. Girls should be given female names and… Read the full story