Dear descendant, I can explain...

Have you ever read or heard about the story of one of your ancestor and wonder why he/she made a certain decision?
Why did great grandpa Bob leave his wife and his 7 children? Why did your 3rd great grandma give up one of her children? Why...? Was great grand aunt Betsy really crazy?
Well, one day you are going to be an ancestor too, and unless you take the time now to "explain" you will have a bunch of descendants that will be pretty confused about that one event in your life that is not exactly "normal".
You can write as little or as much as you want, what really matters is that your descendants will know that you thought of them, and tried to help them understand.
You can write it in a secret diary, you can make a book about the story of your life, or just particular events, whatever you choose, just try to put yourself in your grandchildren, great grandchildren' shoes and tell them as much as it is comfortable for you, but at the same time is reassuring for them.
Also, you might be surprised to know that not all of your descendants might believe in what you believe. Wouldn't you like for them to know more about your faith?
There are stories that I hear from my family about things my grandma might have done, and my great grandma also, and I keep wondering if they are true, and if so, why?
Unless I find a secret diary somewhere, I think I will never know the answer in this life.
I don't want my descendants to feel the same way I feel regarding the stories of my ancestors, and this is one of the reasons why I try to write down thoughts and feelings, and when time allows it, put together stories of part of my life, like I did with the book on how I met my husband, and the one regarding my testimony.

If you haven't started yet, I encourage you to start writing your stories, label your pictures, even better connect the story to the pictures as soon as you can.
You are really the only one who can "explain"

Easter family tree game

On Easter Sunday, how about making the egg hunt a little more meaningful?
You can fill the eggs not only with candy and money, but with pieces of the magnetic family tree game!
You can make your own rules, or follow mine:

Find the couple 1 point
Find the family group 3 points
Find one complete generation ( 2 x # of people in that generation) points
i.e: in the 3rd generation, you have 2 sets of grandparents= 4 people x2= 8 points

When the whole family tree is completed, each child will have a prize according to the points they accrued, and the whole family celebrates with ice cream or any traditional Easter dessert.

At my house, we are going to have pastiera!
This  game will be another way to get your family, especially your children a little more involved in genealogy and family history!
Make it fun, and you'll get more fans!^_^

Happy Easter everybody!!!

April host rewards and gifts

If you are like me, you like high quality products, but at the same time, you would like them better if you could have them for free or at a very discounted price!

I love the host rewards programs because it allows me to do just this. Most of the products I have published were either free or  so discounted I could not miss that opportunity!

This month's host reward is just what you are looking for!
Check out the flier:

 

and then contact me  to schedule a workshop with me!

Your friends will get a free 12x12 scrapbook page credit coupon just for being there!

Remember, workshops can be in person, or virtual, they can be with even just one person(you) or as many as you would like, or you could also schedule a simple Studio demonstration either in person or online.

Early publishing special!

It’s no joke! Heritage Makers is having a HUGE publishing special! All you have to do is publish any Heritage Makers project and you’ll instantly save 20% off shipping! From now until April 15th, you can publish your Mother’s Day gifts, graduation presents, or that special “just because” project you’ve been creating. You can save 20% off shipping on any Heritage Makers project*, including storybooks, greeting cards, gallery-wrapped canvases, wire-bound books, and posters.
Don’t delay! Publish your Heritage Makers project today to save!
*Offer doesn’t apply to direct ship.
Contact me ASAP if you need to buy your publishing credits to get the best deals, and check the pick of the month!!

What are you going to give your mom? Look at the pick of the month!

Mother's day is right around the corner, so now is the time to think to a gift that will really make her feel special, not only that day, but everyday!
Heritage Makers comes to the rescue with some great offers on products that are sure to touch her heart:

Swatchbooks

Photo necklace

20x20 Canvas

.. and they all come with a free card!
Give a look at the flier to see with your own eyes!

 

You need to contact me by the end of the month to get these great specials, so hurry!

And if you publish before April 15th, you get a great discount on shipping!

Looking for distant cousins

Today I am going to talk about my husband's family side, more precisely his grandma's father's  side.
We are looking to find distant cousins, descendants of Martin Lorenzo Dow Knight and Julia Judenia White.
We have already found many, but we know there are many more yet to be found and probably pictures that we haven't seen yet.
With the pictures we were able to find and share with each other, I created this Descendancy poster, and I am hoping that looking at the pictures, names and dates somebody will recognize their ancestors and will contact us.
So, here it is:

(click on the image to magnify it)
The Knights were originally from Alabama, and then moved to Tennessee.
Martin Lorenzo Dow was son of Davis (1815-1875) and Sarah(1820-1880) Knight, and among his siblings were
Francis M. Knight,
Elizabeth L. Knight,
Eliza J. Knight,
Jesse Jackson Knight ( who married Julia Judenia's sister, Eustacia Bell (Ada) White),
William M. Knight ( who married Zelphia Almedia Amerson)  and
Mary C. Knight.
If you recognize any of these names as one of your ancestors, please, contact me.
We are also going to have a Knight family reunion, June 25th-26th for all the descendants of Davis and Sarah Knight, and we would sure love to have new distant cousins join us!
Once I have more pictures, I will create a poster for the descendants of each of Martin Lorenzo Dow's siblings, in hope to find even more cousins.

Tribute to dad

In Italy Father's Day is celebrated on the 19th of March. It is a day to celebrate and to spend with your dad.

Unfortunately to me, this is also the last day of my dad's mortal existence, 24 years ago.

I was only 13, and you might have described me as a rebel.

I loved my dad to death, but since we were both pretty stubborn people, you could see me "discussing" with him most of the time.

On father's day morning, I was upset with him for something, and I went to school without even saying "Happy Father's day". That was something I would regret forever, since he died that same morning.

I didn't get to tell him "Ti voglio bene papa'" (I love you daddy), nor to hide that handmade father's day card under his plate as we used to do for every special occasion. I lost my chance to let him know how important he was to me, because of how stubborn I was...

It took years to get over this guilt... I found my peace when finally doing the genealogy and temple work for him and our ancestors.

Various events and dreams in my life have shown me that he loves me and knows that I love him, and I know that one day I will hug him again.

As I said, my dad was stubborn, but he was it for the right reasons. He would never compromise his integrity. He was always true to himself and did every possible sacrifice to allow us children to have an education.

He was only able to get to third grade, but you would never have guessed that.

He read every possible book, he was his own doctor, he had done so many different jobs in his life, and always excelled in what he did. I got to only know him as a blacksmith, he had his own shop close to our house, so he was always with us.

He would work so hard, even when his growing health problems. Everybody knew "Mastro Oreste" ( Oreste the Master), and appreciated his work. Still nowadays I will find people telling me that my dad made a gate for their property or stairs for their home or every possible artistic iron work. 

He would go to church every Sunday, and expect that we would do the same. He taught us modesty, and integrity. He was not perfect, but to my eyes, he was pretty close!

Oh how I wish he could be here today and see my children. I know he would be such a great influence in their life... I know he is watching upon us, but I still miss him!

I hope and pray that through the stories I tell and write about him my children will get to love him just as much as I do, and grow a deep desire to be like him.

 

TI VOGLIO BENE PAPA'!!!!

How cousin are we?

Last weekend we got the chance to go visit Brenda, my husband's 2nd cousin twice removed, whom we found through a series of events that involved also another long lost cousin, Sarah.
We  enjoyed our time so much, getting to know her, her husband and her mom, and scanning so many family pictures!
At the same time, I realized that while we all know we are cousins, and both my husband and Brenda trust me when I tell them they are 2nd cousins twice removed, it really sounds a bit confusing!
It wasn't until my husband told me that he couldn't explain to Brenda's mom how they were related, that I realized I had to make it more visual, and I promised my self and Brenda that I would do it ASAP.
So, this morning I just had to do it.
I started gathering the pictures from each generation, for each of the three lines involving Sarah, Brenda and my husband, then I uploaded them on my publishing account, and I started a new 8.5x11 page project.

Once it was done, I wondered why didn't I think of it sooner!
Each level is a generation, so you can see siblings, then cousins, then 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins and so on. Looks like my children are the farthest in the descendancy line!My husband came home and finally said that he understood the relationship with his long lost cousin, plus I received a great feedback from both of the other cousins, and I know they will enjoy showing it to other  family members on their descendancy line.
It might be interesting to notice that for each line, the cousins that were "starters" in finding each other, are on a different level. Almost as if for each generation there was one appointed to reconnect the family...
I am going to create more version of this"cousin" chart, to include each and every distant cousin we  are so grateful to be connecting to, so that when we will see each other at our family reunion, it will be so much easier to understand and remember how exactly we are related!
I can't wait!

By the way, if there are other descendants of Martin Lorenzo Dow and Julia Judenia White out there, or if anybody in this chart seems familiar, let me know, I am always looking for long lost cousins!

If you would like to learn more about the various degrees of kinship, you can give a look at this entry on the wikipedia