NBC has announced that it has renewed Who Do You Think You Are for a third season. Read the full article here.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Follow Friday (on Sunday): Around the Blogosphere - February 20, 2011
Sometimes, other duties interfere with doing genealogy, blogging and reading all of the great posts written by other bloggers. This was one of those weeks.
There were so many great blog posts being written about last weekend's Roots Tech conference, that it took a while to skim through everything in my Google Reader to pick out my choices for the best blog posts of the week.
Here they are, better late than never.
Why Roots Tech is the Bees Knees by Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy
Roots Tech Update 7 by Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy
Roots Tech Update 6, yep, you guessed it, Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy
I enjoyed this post by John of the Transylvania Dutch blog because it really hadn't occurred to me that federal tax returns could be a source of information for genealogists.
If you're like me and getting sick and tired of 25 different bloggers posting the same genealogy-related press release on their blogs, help is on the way. Joan Miller of Luxegen Genealogy explains the new site, Genea-Press which should provide some relief from an over-filled RSS Reader.
Also from Joan Miller is this report from Roots Tech.
Bill West of West in New England provided one of the better reviews of the Rosie O'Donnell episode of Who Do You Think You Are.
I'm still laughing over You Go Genealogy Girl #2 Cheri Hopkins' tie in of her Hogg family with Boss Hogg of the Dukes of Hazard. It reminded me of the time I was walking around a corner in Nashville and ran smack into John Schneider.
I'm sure there were some other good posts this week, but I missed some of them because the author only syndicates the first few lines for the RSS feed; or there were too many affiliate advertisements and widgets on the blog that I didn't have the patience to wait around for the page to load; or the font size and color used on the blog couldn't be read on the dark background used on the blog. Sorry for the mini-rant, but with more than 700 posts back logged in my Google Reader this week, it's time to say adieu to several of the blogs I've been following. Adieu.
52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 7: Toys
Week 7 Challenge: Toys. What was your favorite childhood toy? Is it still being made in some form today?
There were many toys that struck my fancy as a child, but the one I chose to write about this week is the original Hula-Hoop by Wham-O. These circular tubes were great fun and good exercise! These toys came out in the mid 1950s, and as with most new inventions, I had to be the first on my block to have one. If I remember correctly, mine was banana yellow.
I loved to Hula in our front yard, or in the living room if the weather was bad outside. I was always Hula-Hooping. It didn't take long to pick up the technique. After a while, just Hooping around my waist wasn't enough and I had to master twirling the hoop around my neck and my arms. I don't think I ever mastered hooping on one leg, but I'm sure I must have tried.
My father became a master at the Hula-Hoop boomerang - as you can see in the third drawing in the advertisement here. You had to have a pretty good concrete driveway. There was a trick to spinning the hoop backwards while it moved forward and then it came right back to you! I'm sure there was some kind of scientific equation involved, but all I know is that it worked. Like magic.
Wham-O's other big toy of the 1950s was the Frisbee. This was the incredible flying disc with which you could play catch, or if alone, you could master the boomerang method with the Frisbee as well.
Both of these toys are still manufactured and sold today. In fact, I bought an imitation Hula-Hoop a couple years ago. It was certainly not like the original. It was light weight and filled with water. I really do blame my inability to hoop this time around on the cheap device rather than lack of hooping skills. It started leaking, then broke apart. It wound up in the trash last fall. I'm still going to shop around for a brand name Hula Hoop because I could still have fun with one today!
I also loved board games and my favorite was Monopoly. I still have my original board, funny money, cards and tokens. A couple years ago, I bought The Beatles Monopoly
board game. It's still in the shrink wrap, but I might break the seal some day just to see what's inside. Years ago, I received as a gift a version of Monopoly-type game based on my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was produced as a fund-raiser for a community organization. Apparently donors could buy a square on the board and put the name of an honoree on the square. Yep - my name was printed on the game board.
Some things never change. Last month I downloaded a version of Monopoly to my Kindle e-reader.
There were many toys that struck my fancy as a child, but the one I chose to write about this week is the original Hula-Hoop by Wham-O. These circular tubes were great fun and good exercise! These toys came out in the mid 1950s, and as with most new inventions, I had to be the first on my block to have one. If I remember correctly, mine was banana yellow.
My father became a master at the Hula-Hoop boomerang - as you can see in the third drawing in the advertisement here. You had to have a pretty good concrete driveway. There was a trick to spinning the hoop backwards while it moved forward and then it came right back to you! I'm sure there was some kind of scientific equation involved, but all I know is that it worked. Like magic.
Wham-O's other big toy of the 1950s was the Frisbee. This was the incredible flying disc with which you could play catch, or if alone, you could master the boomerang method with the Frisbee as well.
Both of these toys are still manufactured and sold today. In fact, I bought an imitation Hula-Hoop a couple years ago. It was certainly not like the original. It was light weight and filled with water. I really do blame my inability to hoop this time around on the cheap device rather than lack of hooping skills. It started leaking, then broke apart. It wound up in the trash last fall. I'm still going to shop around for a brand name Hula Hoop because I could still have fun with one today!
I also loved board games and my favorite was Monopoly. I still have my original board, funny money, cards and tokens. A couple years ago, I bought The Beatles Monopoly
board game. It's still in the shrink wrap, but I might break the seal some day just to see what's inside. Years ago, I received as a gift a version of Monopoly-type game based on my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was produced as a fund-raiser for a community organization. Apparently donors could buy a square on the board and put the name of an honoree on the square. Yep - my name was printed on the game board.Some things never change. Last month I downloaded a version of Monopoly to my Kindle e-reader.
About 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy has created a third year of blogging prompts for genealogy bloggers.
Genealogy Events in Nebraska - Updated February 20, 2011
The calendar of upcoming genealogy events in Nebraska has been updated and is again available on the Genealogy Events in Nebraska page on this blog. My thanks to everyone who has contributed listings to include on the calendar.
If you have an event to add, please email details to me at sooznebr@gmail.com.
If you have an event to add, please email details to me at sooznebr@gmail.com.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day
Our ancestors must have loved exchanging Valentine's Day cards. Pictured above is one of several Valentines that were given to my grandfather. This one was given to Willie Kelly by his teacher when he was seven or eight years old, circa 1899.
repost from February 14, 2010
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