Gratitude, Family, Thanksgiving, and Health Histories

 In the United States, the fourth Thursday of November is celebrated as Thanksgiving, gathering loved ones, family, and friends to share a meal reflecting upon the past year's events and the challenges and blessings received. Expressing gratitude has become a topic of scholarly study, and they have found that gratitude can improve physical and psychological health, decrease aggression, and enhance empathy, increase mental strength. One may wonder where the tradition began. Most children learn it started with the pilgrims; however, it didn't become a National Holiday until 1863, when President Lincoln made a proclamation commending the citizens of the war-torn nation for asking God to care for all those who were widows, orphans and heal the nation's wounds from the civil war. Thanksgiving was celebrated on the final Thursday in November until 1939, when President Franklin D Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week to assist with sales during the Great depression. The movement of the date by President Roosevelt met significant opposition, and two years later, in 1941, a bill was signed making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving is a time for family gatherings and an excellent opportunity to gather family stories, pictures, traditions, and other information. You may want to interview the older people asking about stories from their lives and the lives of their parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in your gathering.

You may want to consider creating a medical family history.  Your first thought may be, why? Why would I need to create a Medical Family tree? How does this help my ancestor? The simple answer is it really doesn't help your ancestors, but it can help you, your children, grandchildren, and descendants. FamilySearch has a helpful article regarding Family Health History you can access here. 

I created a Medical Family Tree you can use for ideas of questions you may want to record. If you are interested in receiving a downloadable file, please feel free to reach out to me through the Contact me page, and I will send it to you directly.

Welcome to StoryTree!

In honor of  December 7th, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, I thought this would be a great video to share to remind everyone the importance of recording our personal and family histories. One of the great places that I have discovered to record these videos is on Story Tree.  Story Tree allow you to video record your loved ones on a variety of topics that are suggested by Story Tree or you can create your own topic.  Invite your family to participate and you can begin to share the memories you had as a child, parent, grandparent.  What do you remember about your 1st car?  1st date?  It has been said, that if a person's history is not written down or in this case, a video biography, their life story will be lost within 2 generations. Don't let the memories of your grandparents, parents, or siblings be lost or fade away.  There are so many options and ways to share family history, but this site allows for collaboration.  If you would like to learn more, click the link Welcome to StoryTree!

What is a Picture worth

As one ages, you begin to realize time flies on wings of lightning.  The once endless summers as a child become the cherished months spent escaping from the rigors of college.  After college, life begins  to settle in with the normal adult responsibilities of a job, family, travel, and a variety of activities that fill the days, months and years.  If we do not capture these fleeting moments, they pass far from our view and can never be recaptured.  Or can they?

Some say "A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words."  I think pictures can speak volumes and not just "A Thousand Words."  One professional photographer from Argentina has been taking pictures of each member of his family from 1976 to the present.  The picture is taken the same whether it is a good or bad day and it is always the same pose. Looking at these just reminds us of the importance of documenting our family not only with names, dates, and places,  but also the importance of photographs and stories.  One of the most precious gifts we can give our family are pictures. Pictures record a snap shot of ones life and help others to know what we were like and remind us of times in the past. Pictures are part of history and can be very artistic.  If you would like to see the full picture of the Diego Family through the years, click Diego Goldberg :: The Arrow of Time.  One word of caution, please remember to label your pictures with an acid free pencil or scan and label the people in the photographs so you don't forget who was in the photos.

Use Family Time to Grow your Family Tree

A friend of mine shared this picture with me.  He said it was on the back of a Rice Crispies cereal box.  How cool is that?  The first paragraph talks about the importance of having children learn about their ancestors; not just the dates, names, and places, but also the story behind the person. It is great to see big companies see the value of family time and the importance of learning more about your family.  You can tell your children stories about some of their ancestors, their lives, and any other important information that will help them learn more about their family.

This summer have your children interview their grandparents.  There are many different ideas for questions that the child or parent could ask, such as:
1. What was your home like where you grew up?
2. What types of games did you play when you were little?
3. How did you meet Grandma/Grandpa?
4. What was my father/mother like as a child?
Theses are just a few questions that could be used. If you would like more suggestions, please leave a comment and I will respond with others. If you can video record the interview it would be great. If you are unable to record the interview, have the child/parent write down the questions and answers for future generations. Remember, as one learns more about where and who they are from, they come to understand more about who they are.

Budawang Aborigines

Cathy Dunn, a professional Historian and noted author specializes in Aboriginal Culture and Research. Located in New South Wales (NSW), Ms. Dunn has access to many records and has provided indices regarding convicts and residents in NSW as noted in my previous post.

Cathy Dunn states on her website "The Budawang tribe were the Aboriginals to be sighted by Captain Cook in 1770, on Koorbrua beach at Murramarang. The tribal area of Budawang is from Conjola in the north, Lake George in the West and the Moruya (Deua) River in the south." The area is located on the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Ms. Dunn has indexed Roman Catholic and Church Of Engalnd Baptisms, Marriages and Death for the Milton Ulladulla, Aboriginal Households on the 1902, 1903 and 1922 Electoral Rolls and a list of aboriginal men that served in World War I. The images are not availble to view on the website, but the information from these records have been indexed and are placed in alphabetical order for ease of searching. The indexed information includes names, dates, place of the event and parents are listed with the birth information of a child.

If you would like to research in these databases, click Budawang Aborigines. Have Fun1

Holiday Time Time for Family History

The upcoming holidays are a great opportunity to develop your Medical Family History or as I have previous blogged Family Health History. I have included for viewing a video from RootsTelevision that discusses the importance of developing a Medical Family History citing a particular family's experience of developing their history and how it has affected their lives.

Computer programs have been developed to help you track your family's health history such as Geneweaver for a small fee. Another website that is sponsored by the US Surgeon General has a small program that you can download for free to create your own medical history. Personally I have used both of these and prefer Geneweaver as it allows for greater flexibility in tracking various health problems. The US Surgeon General site is limited to specific diseases such as Stroke, Diabetes, etc. but if you can not afford the program, use the US Surgeon General's program or at the very least keep track of the causes of death in your family tree. Enjoy the video!

Senior Toolkit for Family Health History

I have blogged about the importance of Family Health Histories before discussing that a Family Reunion is a perfect opportunity to gather and share your families health history. The Utah Department of Health has developed a Senior Friendly Toolkit for exploring and gathering you family's health history. If you have Adobe Reader click here to obtain a copy of the toolkit. Once you have viewed this link, you can save the toolkit to your computer by clicking on save a copy at the top of the PDF document.

If you would like to view two short videos regarding the importance of a Family Health History , click here to view a video about Health History and Cancer or
click here for a video about the importance of Health History and Diabetes. Both of these videos are links to Channel 2 News in Salt Lake City where a reporter is interviewing a person(s) regarding their experiences of obtaining a Family Health History and their personal health.

Footnote Teaming up with FamilySearch

Wow! What a wonderful week this has been and it is only Tuesday. Footnote announced that they are going to partner with FamilySearch to digitize and make available many of the historical collections, with the first project being the U.S. Revolutionary War Pension Files. I have included with this post the entire announcement from Footnote.com below. If you would like to read the entire post at Footnote.com, please click here.

"Today, Footnote.com announced an agreement with FamilySearch, historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch is the world’s largest repository of genealogical information.

This new partnership brings together two organizations that will utilize their combined resources to digitize and make available many large historical collections. The first project will be the three million U.S. Revolutionary War Pension files which will be published for the first time online in their entirety.

“The Revolutionary War Pensions will provide an intimate look into the historical events and individuals that shaped our country’s history,” said Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “We are excited about this relationship which enables us to put many more historical collections online.”

The Revolutionary War Pension Files feature original records that include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns and other miscellaneous personnel pay and supply records of American Army Units from 1775-1783. They provide a wealth of new information for historians and genealogists which they can share with other colleagues and family members.

“We are excited to partner with Footnote.com to provide historians and genealogists alike a tremendous source of data that will assist greatly in putting puzzle pieces together to create a rich family history,” said Paul Nauta, manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch. “This affiliation allows us to better meet one of our goals to provide as much data online as fast as possible for those working on their genealogy.”

Also, as a part of this agreement, Footnote.com will be accessible for free in all FamilySearch operated centers worldwide. FamilySearch has more than 4,500 Family History Centers in 70 countries.

Since partnering with the National Archives in January 2007, Footnote.com has digitized over eight million historical records. Each month an additional two million documents are digitized and added to the site. Footnote.com estimates that by the end of 2007 it will have made over 25 million digitized documents available on its web site.

To see free examples of the Revolutionary War Pension Files, go to www.footnote.com/revolutionary-war.php.

Footnote.com has now begun offering free seven-day trial memberships. To start a free trial, visit www.footnote.com/freetrial.php

About Footnote, Inc.
Founded in 1997 as iArchives, Inc., Footnote is a subscription-based website that features searchable original documents that provide users with an unaltered view of the events , places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com all are invited to come to share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About Family Search
FamilySearch (historically known Genealogical Society of Utah) is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries."

Summertime and Family Reunion Fun! Perfect Time to Gather Family Health History

As a follow-up to the Family Health History, I know that a large number of families have family reunions during the pleasant warm days of summer. You might consider this a perfect time for gathering a Family Health History. The Genomics Program that is directed by the Utah State Public Health Department has put together a Family Health History Toolkit that is available for download in a Adobe PDF format. The Toolkit provides you with information about genetic diseases and tendencies that are commonly passed through generations. This PDF download also includes how and where to search for genealogical records that may help you determine the death of your ancestors which will assist you in completing your Family Health History. To obtain the PDF Family Health History Toolkit, please click here.

Family Health History

We all know that genetics plays an important part in our outward features, but it also plays an important part in how body responds to our environment. I personally have interest in this field as I work in the medical field and see the results of genetics on a regular basis. You may ask, why would it be important for you to compile a Family Health History? Health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, osteoporosis, alzheimers, and some cancers to name a few, have been noted to be familial in nature. Knowing your family's personal health history will allow you to adjust your lifestyle and health habits to encourage the best possible health outcome for you and your children.

The United States Surgeon Generals website has a portion dedicated to the Family Health History. At this website they provide a web based platform where you can create your own personal Family Health History on-line. The site also provides for a small downloadable program that will complete the task on your personal computer if you prefer not to place the information on the web based platform. The site provides this information in both English and Spanish. Click here to visit the United States Surgeon Generals website regarding Family Health History. The printed information is also available in Chinese, Portuguese, Polish, and French at Genomics Program. This site is sponsored by the Utah State Health Department and other information about family healthy history and genetics is available for your learning pleasure.