my feet on the dash

Genealogy + Internet = Love.

Photobooth 365 - May 10th, originally uploaded by redmeg8.

I love the internet. I love genealogy. I love helping people.

I occasionally buy "abandoned" old photos from antique stores if I see names on them. When I get home, I post on the ancestry.com message boards about the photo (they have individual boards for almost any surname you can think of).

I've never had anyone inquire about the photos until recently. A man emailed me and said, "That's my aunt and uncle!" I scanned the photo and put it online for him and he was thrilled.

Then it occurred to me - I should just give this to him. I mean, I have the scans should any more family come along and it's not my family, so I have no attachment to it. So, it's going in the mail to him this week.

I mean honestly, how would this happen without the web? Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

New site stuff!

If it's not super-apparent, I changed a few things around these parts today.
I wanted to add a selection from my obscenely large bookmark collection, so now you have the pull-down menus to the right. They should give you a new window to view the link in each time.

Art I Love: self-explanatory... my favourite artists (that I've located thus far)
Pals: online and in real life
Places I Go: a variety of my favourite sites in general; stuff I find interesting
Music: sites to buy and listen to fantastic music; reference sites too
Genealogy: a selection of what I think are the most useful general genealogy sites on the web
IndieShop: shops I love, support, and plain think are worth seeing
You'll Find It: total miscellany; fun and funny sites; curiosities; DYI; kitties; you name it

Also, I popped in a Last.FM "quilt" there to the left that displays my top albums.
I hope the animation isn't annoying. Lemme know if it drives you crazy.

Lastly, I've posted a link under "Stalking Material" to my genealogy website. It's totally not complete or as media-rich as it will be, but, it's time to add it. I've found more distant cousins on the web than you can imagine, so, never say something isn't worth the time. :)

By the way, clicking on the genealogy link will probably reveal that I have some OCD going on. Just a warning ;)

Enjoy!

Ancestry find

And it's free (I'm pretty sure):
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/

It can tell you (with very nice graphics) various things about your last name, including:
- Civil War Service
- Immigration Year
- Life Expectancy
- Name Distribution (UK)
- Name Distribution (US)
- Name Meanings
- Newspaper Headlines
- Occupations   (this one was particularly cool)
- Place of Origin
- Ports of Departure

I'm heavily into my family's genealogy, so, I find this sort of thing FASCINATING. And, who wouldn't?

So that's where my nose comes from...

So that's where my nose comes from..., originally uploaded by redmeg8.

People have always said I look like my Mom, and I do, but, I have a totally different nose. I found this amazing picture of my great grandmother, Ella Heitschmidt, from the early 20th century (she was born in 1888 and lived until 1955) and I thought, "I know that nose!".

The picture of me was taken by Anne Ruthmann. :)