2015

While researching your family history, it’s not uncommon to find some “kissing cousins,” close cousins who have married each other. History is filled with many of these cousin marriages, including the marriages of Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria, and Martin Van Buren. How do you show these cousin marriages in your family tree on Geni? If you have two people who are related in multiple ways within the same tree, you can create a “Cycle” on Geni to display… Read the full story

Happy birthday, Patricia Arquette! Today the Oscar-winning actress turns 47. Born into a showbiz family, Patricia seemed destined to be a performer. Her great grandfather, Charles Augustus Arquette, was a vaudeville performer and her paternal grandfather, Cliff, was an actor and comedian. Not only did both of her parents also work in the industry, but so do her four siblings, who have each found their own path to stardom. Throughout her career, she has starred in a wide variety… Read the full story

Happy birthday, Russell Crowe! Today the actor turns 51. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand to Jocelyn Yvonne and John Alexander Crowe. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was named an MBE for filming footage of World War II. When he was four, Crowe and his family moved to Sydney, Australia to pursue careers as set caterers. Crowe was six when he was cast in his first role on television. Crowe gained… Read the full story

The Great Depression was hard for many people. With little money at their disposal, families had to learn ways to improvise and cook cheaply. Some families have cookbooks passed down from this era detailing some of the dishes many families had to create. Others may have had living family who were willing to teach them some Great Depression recipes. Clara Cannucciari grew up during the Great Depression and remembered her mother’s Depression era dishes with… Read the full story

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Happy 83rd birthday to Debbie Reynolds! She was born Mary Frances Reynolds on April 1, 1932 in El Paso, Texas. The second child of Maxine and Raymond Francis Reynolds, Debbie and her family moved to Burbank, California in 1939. By the age of 16, she had won the Miss Burbank beauty contest and landed a contract with Warner Brothers. Her most memorable turn was opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the classic musical Singin’ in the… Read the full story

As British Prime Minister David Cameron begins his re-election campaign, he’s made an interesting revelation about his family history. In an interview with Heat, Cameron confirmed that he and Kim Kardashian are 13th cousins! How did he come to this revelation? Why Geni’s World Family Tree of course! This relationship was originally reported in two articles in the Daily Mail, following research done by AJ Jacobs, who’s been using Geni’s World Family Tree for his Global… Read the full story

Today is the 126th anniversary of the public opening of the Eiffel Tower. Have you ever visited the iconic structure? Designed by architect and engineer Gustave Eiffel, the famous tower was originally built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. Critics were initially skeptical about the tower in the early days of its construction. Remarkably, the tower was completed under budget in just two years and with only one fatality during construction. On March 31,… Read the full story

Judith (Judi) Elaine Mckee Burns was born in Bloomington, Indiana. Retired, she spends much of her time these days working on preserving her family history. She first became interested in family history after the movie Roots had come out. “My parents had never talked of the family – but when we would go ‘home’ as they called it [Lyons, Green County, Indiana] there were people always around that seemed to be tightly connected to each… Read the full story

On this day in 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León sighted present-day Florida. The famous explore was the first to lead a European expedition to the peninsula. According to legend, Ponce de León was on a quest for the Fountain of Youth, the mythical water source said to bring eternal youth to those who drank from it. Ponce de León was born in the village of Santervás de Campos, Spain in 1460. Born to a noble family, he sought fame and… Read the full story

Happy birthday, Diana Ross! Today the singer turns 71. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Diana was the second eldest child of Ernestine, a schoolteacher, and Fred Ross, a former Army soldier. As a teen, she began singing with a group of friends and eventually, they formed the successful music group, The Supremes. The group became the first all-female music group to have a number one selling album on the Billboard charts. The success of The Supremes skyrocketed… Read the full story

Today we’re excited to announce that Geni has reached an amazing milestone – 150 million profiles! From the very beginning, our goal has been to create the definitive family tree of the entire world. Our collection of profiles has grown steadily over the years, with millions of lineages intersecting, overlapping and culminating into a World Family Tree of over 89 million people and their ancestors. Nowhere else will you find such a large, high-quality single… Read the full story

On March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published. The second best-selling novel of the 19th century, Stowe’s book is often credited with helping to change public opinion on slavery and fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. It is said that after the start of the American Civil War, Stowe paid a visit to the White House. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly greeted her by saying, “so you are the little… Read the full story

Fifty years ago, the award-winning musical The Sound of Music premiered on the big screen. Even today, the musical story based on the real von Trapp family, continues to delight and entertain audiences. The real von Trapp family / Library of Congress The film starred Julie Andrews as the governess, Maria, and Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp. The filmmakers took some creative liberties with the story, changing some facts to dramatize the family’s eventual flight from… Read the full story

Are you searching for your Irish ancestors? With millions of vital historical records destroyed and droves of Irish immigrants settled all over the world, many people researching their Irish heritage may find it to be a frustrating and challenging pursuit. In the U.S. alone, there are over 36 million people with Irish ancestry. That’s over eight times the population of Ireland! Here are a few tips to help you with your Irish genealogy research: Talk to your relatives – The… Read the full story

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The lively Irish holiday takes place every year on March 17, the traditional day of death for Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. In honor of St. Paddy’s Day, here are some surprising things you may not know about St. Patrick: He was kidnapped by pirates at the age of 16 from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland. He lived there for six years before… Read the full story

Yesterday, renowned fantasy author Terry Pratchett died at the age of 66 after a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s. Best known for his Discworld series of about 40 volumes, Pratchett had sold more than 85 million books worldwide in 37 languages. Born in Beaconsfield, England on April 28, 1948, Pratchett was the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett. He developed an early interested in astronomy, however, since he lacked the mathematical skills to become an astronomer, Pratchett… Read the full story

The Global Family Reunion is only a few months away! Will you be there? We’re excited to let you know that the Global Family Reunion has launched a crowdfunding campaign with two very important goals in mind: unite the world and battle Alzheimer’s. Throwing the epic family get-together is best-selling author A.J. Jacobs, and he’s inviting all 7 billion of his cousins to come to what will be the largest, most inclusive family reunion in history. The event… Read the full story

Do you have Russian roots? On March 10, 1845, Alexander III, tsar of Russia, was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Maria Alexandrovna, Alexander became heir apparent when his older brother Nicholas died suddenly in 1865. On his deathbed, Nicholas expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor. Alexander and the Princess wed in 1866, and the union proved to… Read the full story

Today we are delighted to announce a long awaited new feature on Geni – adoption! We are releasing a great enhancement to the family tree that will allow you to show adoptive, foster and biological parent relationships when viewing your family on Geni. There are three changes you will notice in the tree view: You can now add parents to a profile that already has parents. A profile with multiple sets of parents will now… Read the full story

Did you have any Barbie dolls growing up? On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. The famous doll was created by Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc with her husband in 1945. After watching her daughter, Barbara, play with her paper dolls, Handler noticed that her daughter would pretend that her paper dolls were adults. Realizing a gap in the market, Handler envisioned a plastic, adult-figured… Read the full story

Have you read Love in the Time of Cholera? Today we celebrate the life of Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who was born on this day in 1927. Raised by his maternal grandparents, Márquez grew up listening to his grandmother’s fantastical and magical stories, which were told to him as if they were real. His grandmother’s storytelling style greatly influence his own writing style, which would become known as “magical realism.” Known affectionally as Gabo throughout… Read the full story

Are you a fan of Old Hollywood movies? Today we celebrate the life of Jean Harlow, who was born on this day in 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. She was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter to Mont Clair Carpenter, a dentist, and Jean Poe Harlow, the daughter of a wealthy real estate broker. The unhappy marriage had been arranged by her maternal grandfather, Skip Harlow. During the 1930s, Harlow had become one of the biggest movie… Read the full story

On February 27, 2015, the world lost beloved actor Leonard Nimoy. He was 83. With a career that spanned over 60 years, Leonard will perhaps always be remembered for his iconic portrayal of Mr. Spock on Star Trek. In honor of his memory, here are some things about his life you may not have known: Image: Wikimedia Commons 1. Leonard was born on March 26, 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Boston’s West End and sold newspapers… Read the full story

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

Can you image discovering rare, undeveloped photographs from WWII and then being the first person to ever view them? Recently, photographer Levi Bettweiser made such a discovery after coming across 31 undeveloped rolls of film shot by a soldier during World War II. Bettweiser launched the Rescued Film Project in an effort to find and rescue old and undeveloped rolls of film. In 2014, he found the undeveloped batch of rolls at an auction in Ohio. Other than the… Read the full story

Do you remember reading The Catcher in the Rye? On this day five years ago, author J.D. Salinger died at the age of 91 in his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. Jerome David Salinger was born on New Year’s Day, 1919 in New York City. He began writing at a young age, publishing several short stories before serving in World War II. In the spring of 1942, Salinger was drafted into the army. He saw combat in… Read the full story

Have a great genealogy-filled weekend? Check out our roundup of articles from around the web! The Crowded Cemeteries of Hong Kong / The Guardian The Genealogy Sphere The Crowded Cemeteries of Hong Kong – in pictures (The Guardian) – See these amazing pictures of the crowded cemeteries of Hong Kong 109-Year-Old Woman Says Secret to Long Life is Avoiding Men (The Huffington Post) – Does longevity run in your family tree? The oldest living woman in… Read the full story

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death. Considered one of the greatest leaders in history, Churchill was a master orator and statesman. In honor of this momentous anniversary, here are some things you may not have known about Winston Churchill: 1. He comes from an aristocratic family Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer family. His 6th great grandfather was John Churchill, the… Read the full story

Do you remember watching MacGyver? Today star Richard Dean Anderson turns 65. Anderson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Stuart Jay Anderson and Jocelyn Rhae Carter. In the early days of his career, he worked as a whale handler in a marine mammal show, a musician in medieval dinner theater and as a street mime and juggler. He finally received his first role on the daytime soap General Hospital. He rose to fame after snagging the lead role… Read the full story

If you have taken a stroll through a cemetery, you may notice a few graves that are not quite like the others. Many families choose unique markers that are reflective of who the person was when they were alive, while others offer grand tributes to the deceased. Have you come across one? Check out these unique gravestones: 1. Goff Memorial at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C. Image: Sarah Stierch, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) 2. Holding… Read the full story

On this day in 1547, Ivan IV of Russia, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was crowned tsar of Russia. He was the first tsar of all of Russia. The grandson of Ivan the Great, Ivan IV’s long reign saw the transformation of Russia into a vast, multiethnic empire. His territorial conquests spanned far and wide, making Russia the largest nation on the planet. Accounts of his complex personality vary. He was an able diplomate, a… Read the full story

Do you have Norwegian ancestry? On January 15, 1812, Norwegian writer and zoologist Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was born in Christiana (now Oslo), Norway. Working alongside his close friend, Jørgen Moe, the duo collected and published Norwegian folklore. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, the pair collected the fairy tales and legends of Norway. Together they published Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folktales). Their work had a significant influence on Norwegian culture and their names became synonymous for Norwegian folk stories. Asbjørnsen and Moe followed the… Read the full story

We’ve all been there – surrounded by a mountain of paper work as we’re trying to break through that brick wall or uncover that elusive ancestor. A snippet of a newspaper or an old photograph can easily get lost amongst the clutter. How can you avoid getting lost in the mess of research? Check out these tips to stay organized and help you keep track of your family history research. Do it as you go The best way to stay… Read the full story