December 2019

Who are the adventurers in your family tree? On this day in 1899, Norwegian explorer and adventurer Helge Ingstad was born in Meråker, Norway. Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine, were the first to prove the Vikings had reached North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Image: Oslo Museum, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) In 1960, Ingstad and Stine found the remnants of a Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada.The settlement dated… Read the full story

As 2019 comes to a close, we take a look back at all the wonderful things we have been able to accomplish in the past year. Over 10 million profiles have been added to the World Family Tree this year, meaning we’ll close out 2019 with nearly 140 million profiles connected to the World Family Tree! This year our team worked hard to provide the Geni community with new and better tools to help build the family tree faster… Read the full story

Happy birthday to Steven Spielberg! Today the legendary director turns 73. Image: Steven Spielberg / Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Leah Posner, a concert pianist and restauranteur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer. He developed an interest in filmmaking as a child after earning his Boy Scout photography merit badge with a nine-minute 8mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. In the late 1960s, Spielberg began… Read the full story

The following post was written by Ian Stone from Perth, Western Australia. A Geni user since 2010, Ian discovered his passion for genealogy after starting his family tree on the site nearly a decade ago. After sharing his submission for Geni’s Family History Month Giveaway, Ian asked for the opportunity to expand on his answer to the question, “If you could go back in time, which ancestor would you visit and why?” Ian had said that he would love to visit… Read the full story

Happy Wright Brothers’ Day! On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, made history by making the world’s first sustained, man-powered, heavier-than-air flight. Image: The Wright Brothers / San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive The brothers were two of seven children born to Milton Wright, a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and Susan Catherine Koerner. From a young age, they were encouraged to pursue their intellectual interests… Read the full story

On this day in 1775, English novelist Jane Austen was born. Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in Stevenson, Hampshire, England to Reverend George Austen and Cassandra Leigh. One of eight children, Austen had a close relationship with her sister, Cassandra. Growing up, the sisters were encouraged to read from their father’s extensive library. Austen would often write poems, stories, and plays to amuse her family. Although she began writing as a teen, it was not until she was in… Read the full story

Happy birthday to Taylor Swift! Today the music superstar turns 30. Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania and was named after the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Taylor. Many years later in 2011, Swift would have the chance to perform on stage with Taylor during one of her concerts in Madison Square Garden. Music had always been a part of Swift’s life from an early age. Her maternal grandmother was a former opera singer and performed around the world as a member of… Read the full story

Have you seen the painting The Scream? Today we remember Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, who was born on this day in 1863. Image: Edvard Munch / National Library of Norway Munch was born in a farmhouse in Løten, Norway on December 12, 1863. After his mother died in 1868, Edvard and his siblings were raised by his father, who often entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories and tales of Edgar Allan Poe. These stories and the loss of… Read the full story

Save the date! MyHeritage, Geni’s parent company, has announced that MyHeritage LIVE 2020 will take place on October 25-26, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. This one-of-a-kind conference brings together attendees from around the world and international genealogy and DNA experts for a full two days of fun and education. Read our recaps of MyHeritage LIVE 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and MyHeritage LIVE 2018 in Oslo, Norway. The third annual MyHeritage user conference will be held at the Hilton Tel Aviv,… Read the full story

Happy birthday to Kirk Douglas! Can you believe the legendary actor turns 103 today? Image: Kirk Douglas / Wikimedia Commons He was born Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants and the family adopted the surname Demsky in the United States. Growing up, Douglas went by the name Izzy Demsky until he legally changed it to Kirk Douglas shortly before entering the Navy during World War II. After the war,… Read the full story

On this day in 1782, Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States, was born in Kinderhook, New York. Did you know that he was the first President to be born a U.S. citizen? All previous presidents were born in the British colonies before the American Revolution and were therefore British subjects. Image: Martin Van Buren / Library of Congress Van Buren was the son of Dutch parents, and although the Van Buren family had been in America… Read the full story

On this day in 1852, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte took the French throne as Napoleon III. Image: Napoleon III / Wikimedia Commons The nephew and only heir to Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was born in Paris, France on April 20, 1808. After Napoleon was removed from power in 1815, the entire Bonaparte family was forced into exile. Determined to reclaim the French crown, Louis-Napoléon attempted a failed coup. Undeterred, he continued to assert his views in political writings… Read the full story