Twile: A Different Way to Show Off Your Family Tree...

Let me introduce you to Twile. This is something I’ve been playing with recently, but it has actually been around for a year or two now, so some of you may already know how fun it is. First up let me just say that Twile is a website that allows you to display your family and milestones as a timeline … and, not only that, it is totally FREE. As it offers timelines, don’t expect a traditional tree-type chart from them. The timelines are created by using data that you either you enter, or a gedcom file you upload. To add to this, you can also add photos, milestones, and historical events which everyone in your family can view and contribute to. At RootsTech 2016 Twile won both the People’s Choice Award as well as the Innovator Showdown, so it’s certainly grabbed people’s attention. And the claims that it “makes genealogy more engaging” is true. Apart from a graphical timeline of your own tree, they can create a statistics infographic based on your family. Now this is truly cool, and here’s mine …   To get this simply upload your gedcom (or link to an online tree) – if you hadn’t already got one there for your timeline, wait a few mins … and wallah, it’s there in your inbox!! Go ahead and try it for yourself http://ww.twile.com/numbers, and if you have Irish ancestry, there’s a special green infographic for you here https://twile.com/numbers/irish. So if you’re looking for a novel way to show off your tree, or a way to get your family interested in family history, why not try Twile? It could just be the thing you’ve been looking...

25 Ways You Can Present and Share Your Family History...

Let’s say for instance that you’ve started your family history. In fact, you’ve probably been doing it a while. Possibly even years. So now you’ve got all this family information … why not do something useful and creative with it? I’m sure many of you will say ” but none of my family are interested”. I know, I’ve heard that many, many times. And my answer to that, is that it is then your job to MAKE THEM interested. Don’t just tell them the facts (the names and dates) or give them a huge pile of papers, their eyes will glaze over, and you will have put them off family history forever. So it’s a case of getting creative in HOW you present your family history. There are many, many different ways of ‘presenting’ and sharing your research, and it really comes down to whatever works for you. It might be with just your immediate family, or it might be with the whole world. It’s entirely up to you as to who you share it with, and how you share it. Here are 25 ideas on different ways you can present and share your family history. 1. BLOG Blogging is one of the easiest ways to be able to share your research with the world. It’s free, you can do it when you want to, and you can do it from home. You’ve done the research, so why not tell your family (and the wider world) the stories of your ancestors. Tell them about the goldrush, the war heroes, the Depression, the struggles, life on the land, migrating or moving house, the stories of family heirlooms, family pets etc. It’s all history, and you could tell it. It’s a...

One More Picture Added to the Wall...

Some of you may remember that about three years ago I decided to create my Family Tree Photo Wall. This started as a result of having a bunch of family photos, and deciding to put them in an order that made sense to anyone looking it. So I chose to do a butterfly (also known as bow-tie) style tree going direct line back five generations on both mine and Mr Lonetester’s sides of the family. Out of a possible 62 photos (31 on each side of the family), there were only 10 that I was missing photos for … so that wasn’t too bad. However I had an exciting day, as today I was able to add one more photo in – one of my great great grandma Hedvig/Hedvik Karolina Winblad/Vinblad. Born in Mäntsälä in Finland in 1856, she married my great great grandpa Otto Edvard Winter in 1875, and they had six children, my great grandpa (Otto Rafael Winter being their third). Hedvig Karolina Winter died in Helsinki, Finland in 1934, and I was fortunate enough to visit the Helsinki Cemetery in 2015, and saw her’s a few other family members graves. As for my Family Tree Photo Wall, I have no doubt that in time I’ll fill a few more of the nine photo gaps that I still don’t have. Maybe not all … but some. If you’d like to see the process I took to create my Photo Wall, have a look at my earlier posts: Family Tree Photo Wall Part 1: Getting Started Family Tree Photo Wall Part 2: Almost...

Family Tree Photo Wall Part 2: Almost Done...

It was back in July this year that introduced you all to my Family Tree Photo Wall which really seemed to capture peoples attention, including Dick Eastman, as he even wrote about it, which was seriously cool! Anyway that was 3 1/2 months ago, and since then I’ve been working on it on occasions which is why it seems to have taken FOREVER. But I did set myself a goal of finishing it before Christmas,  and I’m pleased to say that it is almost finished. So after nailing in 62 hooks, putting 62 frames up, using half a roll of electrical tape, as well as half a roll of sticky dots … I am almost done. I say almost, as there’s still just a few photos I haven’t managed to track down yet … so that will be an ongoing effort. But apart from them, the tree itself is now complete apart from those. Oh yes, and a title. It needs a title. 1. because it does, and 2. to cover up the huge big hole in the wall from the previous picture that was there. Rather than just “Our Family Tree” or “Our Ancestors” I was thinking more along the lines of “They Made Me Who I Am” … or “From Them, Came Us” …. but I’m still thinking. But if you have any big flashes of inspiration that pop into you head as a possible title, please let me know. I’d love to hear them. Anyway on to the pics … ta-da! So out of the 62 people in the tree, there are currently 10 that I don’t have a photo for. So as shameless cousin bait I’m listing those ten here – and I ask would...

Family Tree Photo Wall Part 1: Getting Started...

I should start off by asking you two questions “do you have a heap of family photos either in albums or scanned and in folders on your computer?” and “do you have a wall that is in need of some redecorating?” Well I do have the photos, and I did have the wall. So I got to thinking, it seems silly not to display these gorgeous photos of our ancestors, and putting them in ‘tree’ format makes them fit into context, so the idea for my Family Tree Photo Wall was born! If you already follow me on Facebook or on Google+ you will be familiar with my Family Tree Photo Wall as I have been putting up photos of the progress as I go, and have been getting wonderful feedback from people. Dick Eastman was one of those saw my pictures on Google+, and has since featured my Family Tree Photo Wall in a recent post of his titled The Ancestral Wall. I had always expected to do a blog post about it once I had it completed, but that is going to be at least several months away, and I am getting people asking me about the process, so I figured I’d break it up into two. With this one detailing the materials I used, as well as the process. I should thank Mr Lonetester, as though he’s not into genealogy personally, he likes to see photos of his ancestors, and understands my passion, so allowed me to do this. And even though my wall is not yet finished, he acknowledges that it is much, much better than the picture that was there before! So if you are wanting to create you own wall, there’s just a...