A genealogist's view of a mother

This morning, I was sitting on the chair while my husband was making my mother's day breakfast, and I started to think that I wanted to make a mother's day quote that could be also used as a genealogy quote... A few minutes later, this is what was created:

 

Then another one came to my mind, and I feel that it really shows how important mothers are in a family tree.

I know that to us genealogists, a mother's maiden name can be frustrating when not found, because it means slowing  down our researches, pulling our hair, sleepless nights, but we carry something that will not show on the paper. 

 It is a love that gets carried down from generation to generation and  defines us much more than a last name could.

It took just a couple minutes to make these 2 pages (it took more to think of the quotes:)).

I just love how putting a quote on a page and beautifying it with images just enhances the whole meaning of it.

I just want to wish a happy mother's day to the mother that were, the mothers that are, and the mothers that will bless the lives of children all over the world!

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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Featured Templates: generations

Every now and then, I like looking at what other Heritage Makers have created that can be used for genealogy and family history projects. Today I looked for projects with keyword "generation" or "generations"

These are the beautiful Templates I found:

Which one is your favorite?
I am sure that more templates with keyword generations will be added in the future, so be sure to search for them yourself, as there might be more than the ones I displayed.
Don't forget that while these templates were created in a particular format, you can always convert them in a different format (i.e.: from a scrap page to a greeting card or a canvas) using the import feature.

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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Improving a free genealogy Template

Last week I was presenting my class on Creative Family history at the New England Family history conference, and I had a workshop to help the attendants realize how easy it is to modify a template.
This was the Template I used:

To choose the Template, I went to the Template gallery and entered the keyword "pedigree" in the search box.

 There were 11 templates with this keyword

Then, since none of the attendants had a premier membership yet, I narrowed my search to only the basic templates.

In this case there was only one template that was in basic, thus completely free, but it was sufficient for our needs.
I chose this Template which was a little bland, and using the free basic digital art available in studio,
I transformed it in this new pedigree chart.

All I did was:
1) Swap the pictures with the ones I needed.
2)Delete the ones I didn't need.
3)Add 2 more pictures for more children
4)Change the background, (I used keyword "green paper" and "pink paper" to find them in the art collection)
5)Add frames (I used keyword "frame" to find them)
6)Add a flower (I used keyword "Flower"to find it)
7)Add leaves (I used keyword "Leaf" to find them)
7)Use ribbons to decorate the chart (I used keyword"Ribbon" to find it)
I dragged and dropped these elements, re-sized them to my needs, and put them in place.
If you were attending my class, you would have been able to see everything step by step, but if you weren't able to be there, no worries.

You can learn how to modify a template through one of our easy tutorials, like this one:
 

Since the Template I used was BASIC, anyone can try and modify it according to their own taste and need.

I want to challenge you to experience for yourself how easy it is to modify a template.
Once you do, if you like,  send me a copy. I will show it on the blog and/or on my CavaGenealogy facebook page.

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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A genealogist's reflection on Valentine's day

Love is in the air...
This morning my boys went to school all happy because they were going to exchange their valentines with their friends at school.
Due to some health problems we have not been able to do anything fancy this year, so they just wrote on some hand trimmed card stock hearts I made for them.
While I do not enjoy the consumist aspect of Valentine's day, I do like having an extra excuse to do something nice for someone I love.
The tradition I have started a few months ago to have a different family tree background for our magnetic family tree has come in handy in a period in which all that we are really focusing on is recovering from our health issues.

I just had to change the back ground to the heart shaped tree, and then I picked the books we had made a couple years ago about the reasons we love each other.

We are thinking  to read them tonight, after the kids go to bed, or even better, we will read them to our children as their night night story.
What better way to tell your children that you love them than to show them that you love your spouse, and why? I feel so blessed for the Love in my life...

Sometimes I find myself thinking twice before posting a happy Valentine's day wish on somebody's facebook  wall, or just uttering those words to anyone whose story I don't completely know. I am always worried about possibly hurting somebody's feelings.
I know that not everyone has a Valentine, and I know that some are really hurting about it, maybe they lost their loved one, maybe they haven't found the one yet, maybe they are just coming out of a bad experience, and this is possibly the worst day of the year for them.

If any of you is reading this post, I would love to share this thought that came to my mind while I was looking at my Valentine family tree.

We are all the fruit of Love, and as such we are all entitled to celebrate Love today, and everyday.

We come from an Heritage of Love. Because 2 people fell in love, we were born.
Even if you grew up in a orphanage, and think that you are a mistake for your parents, even if you think there was no love there, let me tell you, you are still the fruit of love.
It might have skipped a generation, you might find it in your grandparents, even if you will never know them in this life, you are still the fruit of their love.
Because they fell in love, and their child gave birth to you, you are the fruit of their love.

As  you can see, you can choose to be hurt on Valentine's day, or you can choose to celebrate.
I am thankful for the Love that brought each and everyone of my ancestors together, and  I hope and pray to continue this heritage of Love through my children, grandchildren and all of my descendants.

So, if you think you have nobody to celebrate Valentine's day with, how about you spend it with the ones that came before you?

You can call your parents, your aunt, or anybody that could tell you a little more about someone in your family line, and make today the day that you add one more person to love in your family tree, or one more reason to love that family member you want to know more about.

You can look for a blog or facebook group for your family surname, or you can create it, if you don't find it.

You can follow my example and tell the story of your Love to your children tonight.

You can write your story, because remember, LOVE is in your DNA.


The choice is yours!
Happy Valentine's day!

3 generations of Love Template

I was just looking into the template Gallery, and I found this cute three generations of Love canvas Template.

It made me think of my mom and her mom, and I thought this canvas template would be perfect to honor them.
It took me only 5 minutes to switch the pictures and change a couple things, and I am now really in love with the result.

I am my nonna Michelina's namesake, and I am pretty proud of it... I had been wanting to do something that was specific to me and her, but life has been taking its toll, and didn't quite find the time to make it from scratch, so I am very grateful for this template!
I lost my grandma to stomach cancer when I was 12. It was so heartbreaking seeing her go through all that suffering... I was with her when she passed away, and the memory is still vivid nowadays...
I miss her very much, especially now, during Christmas time, because we used to all go to her house, and enjoy our time together...

I hope this template will help many of you remembering and honoring your grandparents.

May you have a Christmas full of good old memories to remember and new beautiful ones to create.

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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4x8 family circles tree card

I was working on last minute gifts and I just couldn't resist but making a family tree out of the 4x8 photocard format.
I also had been wanting to make a family tree out of simple circles, and I did.
Here is the final result:

This is a cute little gift that I can give not only to my husband, but also each of my kids, and it will cost me less than $1 each!^_^
I like it so much that it has become my facebook profile picture!

My husband is also getting this cute calendar, to display on his desk at the office:

I am debating if I want to put them back to back and laminate them, or just give them to him separately...
Either way, He's going to love them!
This would make a  cute little gift to have at each table at the family reunion dinner, or for each member of your family. If you don't have the pictures, you can just use the names, and maybe birth dates, and they will look great too!

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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Is facebook the only source your future generations will rely on?!

image source: shoebox.com 
This vignette is fun and sad at the same time, but it inspired me to a few reflections...
Today we find ourselves struggling to find info about our ancestors; each and every little bit we find is extremely valuable to us. We look at pictures and we wonder where they were taken, unless we are lucky enough to find info on the back of it, or to have a family member that remembers the story behind it. We try to understand who our ancestors were through the pictures, through their heirlooms, if lucky, through their diaries...
Still, it always feel like we don't have enough information.
Will our descendants feel the same about us?
Many of us share pictures and stories through facebook, blogs and other social networks, but how many of these pictures and stories tell who we  really are?

By the time our descendants will come along, there will be so much information that they might actually get overwhelmed if not bored in the end and not be so interested in our story after all.
Even if they are really eager to know more about their ancestors, and will go through our whole facebook account, what will they find? Thousands of links shared? Copy and paste of other people's status? Games played? A gazillion pictures?
Which of these incredible amount of data will  really tell what we think?
How will they know what was really important to us? How will they learn from our experiences?
How will they know our testimony?

Even in the cyber era, a book will be the true and tested means to pass our heritage on.
When our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and their descendants will find and go through it, they will understand that if we took the time to put it together, it must have really been important to us.
Whether it is a  hardbound book you publish once a year or every 5 years,  a scrapbook with pages to update from time to time, whether it is a collection of your traditions, of your recipes, of your achievements, of your very own spiritual thoughts, or all of these and  more, I urge you to start writing your personal story, and  take a few minutes every week to describe at least the most important pictures of your life so that your descendants will not have to rely on the cyberspace to know who you are.

Gingerbread Christmas card template

Every now and then among the thousands of already beautiful templates available in the Template gallery on my website, I happen to find one that is just too gorgeous not to share.
This Christmas card is one of them:

I just love it!
I love the colors, I love the style, and I love that has the space to write a full Christmas letter!
This is a 7x5 Greeting Card, Template ID: 74266.
You can give a better look at it here. 
How about a supercute matching address label?

Template ID #63375
These are  premier Template, so you will need PREMIER to edit them.
Contact me to ask how you can get a FREE month of PREMIER and you will be able to create this wonderful Christmas letter/card in no time!
And remember, these templates are fully modifiable, so if you need more pictures, you can add them, re-size them, change embellishments, background and add as much text as you like!
If you want to save when you order this cards, you need to have them ready to ship before the 20% off cards offer ends, at the end of November.

 This are the holiday deadlines for publishing and ordering your projects in time for Christmas: