Who Do You Think You Are UK - Len Goodman of DWTS

From the UK's version of Who Do You Think You Are - featuring Len Goodman of the US's Dancing With the Stars and the UK's Strictly Coming Dancing.

Capturing Family Stories on Video

Have you been doing all you can do in capturing your family's stories? So many of us genealogists spend so much of our time looking through historical papers, digging through our personal archives or Googling our ancestor's names. Have you taken the time to make use of today's technology to capture your family stories?

As I've been cleaning out a lot of family ephemera from my personal archives, I feel like I'm uncovering a gold mine. So many of the documents, photographs, yearbooks have been stashed away for so long, I'd forgotten all about them. One of the items I discovered recently was an 8 x 10 photograph of my father working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant in Lincoln, Nebraska in the 1950s. Before I let him reminisce and tell me about the photo, I grabbed my Flip video camera.

My camera work is a little shaky at first.

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With video cameras built-in to many of today's smartphones, anyone can capture little snippets like this. It's nice to do these in short segments and have some kind of an idea what questions you want to ask. Photographs are a great way to allow your interview subject a chance to tell you about the photo.

As you can tell from the video, Dad thought the interview was over, but as soon as I turned off the video, he talked for another five minutes about the machine, what it did, and pointed out to me that he always went to work with a shine on his shoes!

So, when you do this - keep that camera rolling. You can always edit later.

Sunday brunch: Danish Ebleskiver recipe

Today's earlier post about my "Grandpa Pete" got me thinking about one of the traditional family recipes for Danish ebleskiver (also spelled aebelskiver). These are little round pancakes. When my father used to visit his grandmother, the children all called them "balls" - which is an apt description.

Danish Ebleskiver basic recipe

4 eggs, separated
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup melted shortening
2 cups milk (recommend buttermilk)

Beat egg yolks; add sugar. Sift together dry ingredients and add alternately with shortening and milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Pour some cooking oil into the ebelskiver pan. Heat until smoking. Fill the depressions about half full. When cooked on the bottom turn with two forks. Flipping them is an acquired skill that takes some practice!


You can test for done-ness by inserting a toothpick. When it comes out clean, they will be done. In time, you'll know how to time them - just like with regular pancakes.


Add oil to the pan between batches.

As soon as the ebelskiver are done, shake them in a paper bag filled with sugar (or powdered sugar) to give them an extra-sweet coating. You can eat them by hand, with some honey, syrup or jam as a dipping sauce. Make this a new addition to your Sunday brunch!

While teflon ebleskiver pans are available, I find that a cast iron pan gives better results.















Watch a video about making ebelskiver below.

"Shirttail Kin" discovered in papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometimes while researching my family history, I get this sense that some of the family members I am researching are a bit "Forrest Gumpish" - meaning they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things - or whose lives crossed paths with people whose names we recognize. There's one who flew with Wiley Post; another who hung out with presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Yesterday, an online search yielded what I found to be an extraordinary connection to 20th century American history. It is a letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dated 5 August 1958, Montgomery, Alabama to Dwight E Loder, a "shirttail" kin member of the family who was president of Garrett Biblical Institute located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Loder had offered Dr. King a faculty position at the Institute and the letter from Dr. King is declining the offer.

The following are excerpts I found most interesting and with historical significance. The document is from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project.

". . .I feel a moral obligation to share with you the decision that I have presently made. As you know, I am deeply entrenched in the rising tide of racial conflict here in the deep South. My congregation and members of the community are also involved. And they look to me to guide them spiritually and otherwise, as they move with uncertainty through this maze of racial tension."


"I have a deep sense of responsibility at this point and feel, for the next few years at least, that my place is here in the deep South doing all in my power to alleviate the tensions that exist between Negro and white citizens. I have started on this challenging venture of love and non-violence, and I am all too aware of the fact that this philosophy has not been spread enough throughout the deep South. I am hoping by the Grace of God to be able to carry this approach far beyond the bounds of Montgomery, and this will take both time and hard work."


" Please give my best regards to Mrs. Loder. I certainly hope our paths will cross again in the not-too-distant future. Since meeting you and your charming wife I have come to admire you greatly. I hope this is the beginning of a friendship that will last over the years. Coretta sends her warm regards to both of you."


Source: the Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Volume IV January 1957 - December 1958


Putting this letter in historical perspective:

Letter was written in August, 1958

Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington was August 28, 1963.

Dr. King's was assassinated April 4, 1968.

Listen to Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Just to prove I'm not always so serious . . .  I wondered if my Irish ancestors might have celebrated Cinco de Mayo. . . . .

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!