I am not sure what the appeal is with the awful show called Jersey Shore, but I guess MTV has to air something since they don't show videos any more. So the whole Snooki phenomenon has gone insane and with it a couple of sites that let you download a PNG file of the orange one where you can insert her into other images (site 1, site 2).
I decided to have a little fun and add Snooki to some historical images. If you decide to make your own, post a link in the comments!
I finally got around to doing my Wordle. I started with my daughter and went up 7 generations. I added all the surnames I knew and where there was only a first name I wrote "Unknown". It became a dominant part of the resulting image. There are also a couple of surname changes: Kilchevsky to Dekel and Hytowitz to Hyde.
Here's the result:
It's a very unique mixture of origins in my opinion. Can you tell where my daughter's ancestors are from?
Randy Seaver always comes up with something fun to do on Saturday nights. This time it's a list of ten questions for a quick genealogical confession:
1. When did you start genealogy research? (2008 - I am a true newbie but already have a database of almost 10K names. Obviously most are unsourced and not verified - there's a lot of work to do)
2. Why did you start doing research? (I took my daughter on a vacation to Israel and read through a roots project that my sister did over 20 years ago. I always regreted not knowing more about my family history. I thought it would be great if I could put together a family tree for my kid(s) that consisted of both sides of the family. Little did I know that my wife's side would turn out to be GIGANTIC)
3. What was your first big success in research? (Figuring out all the amazing resources out there and using them to build a 16-generation lineage for my kids)
4. What is your biggest genealogy regret? (My grandparents NEVER talked to me about their lives and families before the escaped from Europe. I grew up knowing that everyone was killed by the nazis and I never asked more questions. I wish I had asked, especially on my Dombek side. I plan to interview my grandmother in depth on my next visit)
5. What are you best known for in the genealogy world? (I believe I am a complete unknown at this point)
6. What is your professional status in genealogy? (Not certified but perhaps certifiable. Maybe one day, but I don't see this as a career options for the next couple of decades. I like talking about it with friends and getting them interested)
7. What is your biggest genealogy achievement? (Finding a big network of cousins on both sides and getting them to talk to each other, either after many years of losing touch or never even knowing they existed)
8. What is the most FUN you've had doing genealogy? (Taking my family on a genealogical field trip through the city of Atlanta, tracing my wife's ancestors and seeing the places they lived. I wrote about it in this post)
9. What is your favorite genealogy how-to book? (I don't really read the how-to variety of books. But I am very happy that genealogy has turned me back on to the historical non-fiction genre. Currently reading "The Lost" and on deck are "Defiance" and "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee")
10. What notable genealogist would you like to meet someday? (Randy Seaver, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Deborah Lipstadt and many others)
Well that's it for my confession. Thanks again for the challenging questions, Randy!
I've been extremely busy these last few weeks but I decided to try out Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun challenge to find out who's number 21 in my Ahnentafel Report and came up with Hanna Minka (Unknown) Smorgonski.
I know absolutely nothing about her other than the fact that she was my 2nd great-grandmother and she was married to Shlomo Smorgonski. I only know this from a Page of Testimony I found on the Yad-Vashem website that was filled out by my grand-uncle Shlomo Shamgar about his father (she is listed as his mother). I'm not even sure where I got her middle name from and have no idea what her surname was. I doubt if I will ever find out much more about her.
I have been reading the book "The Lost" and have been thinking about my Jewish-Polish ancestry a lot lately. I think I will put up a series of posts about what I know and how much is missing. But just to give you a taste, when my parents where here for a short visit at the begining of the month I realized that my father had never known his grandparents. They were all long gone by the time he was born. His parents rarely spoke about them. On my mother's side she had only known her mother's parents. And had only seen them about 2-3 times in her entire life.
75% of my great-grandparents perished in the holocaust. Nobody in my family knows anything about them because their children barely said anything about what happened before or during these terrible times.
Wow - I am late to the party. I've already been tagged twice for this award by Judith of Genealogy Traces as well as by Msteri of Heritage Happens... - Thank you both!
The blogs who receive the Proximidade Award invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
Now as I said I think I am a little late to the party and almost everyone has been tagged, but I am still going to try. Here goes:
1) kinnexions by Becky
2) Tracing the Tribe by Schelly
3) Genealogy Reviews Online by Tim
4) Geneablogie by Craig
5) The Genealogue by Chris
6) Genea-Musings by Randy
7) footnoteMaven by The footnoteMaven
8) Ancestories by Miriam
As you can see I am on a first name basis with all these fine bloggers :-)
Hey now that I have this great list I can add a blogroll to this site!
