Earlier this year, I did a series of blogs that took a brief look at the family trees of candidates who were (or who hoped to be) running for President of the United States in 2012. I will now continue the series by looking at the family tree of the Vice Presidential candidates. Here is a brief look into Paul Ryan’s family tree. This year, the Republican party selected Mitt Romney as their choice of candidate to run for President of the United States in 2012. It was very recently revealed that Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his choice … Continue reading →

Pop star Justin Bieber recently had an interview in Rolling Stone Magazine. In the interview, he made a comment that indicated that he thought that he was “Inuit or something”. This comment, coupled with his remark that his heritage could get him “free gas”, is making its way across the internet. Justin Bieber was interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine. His photo is on the cover of the issue, next to wording that indicates that he has recently had his eighteenth birthday. I haven’t read the interview itself. My best guess was that the decision to interview Bieber had something to … Continue reading →

President Barack Obama seems to be a fascinating person to do genealogy research on. His family tree has revealed a connection between himself and some rather unlikely relatives. A genealogist from Ancestry.com has determined that Obama is related to John Punch, who was a Virginia slave. For many genealogists, there is something uniquely captivating about the family tree of President Barack Obama. Perhaps the attraction is entirely because he is the current President of the United States. Maybe the interest has something to do with the fact that this is an election year, and people are starting to want to … Continue reading →

Last week when I brought Dylan to his dentist visit, the dentist noticed that he has an underbite. We had noticed the underbite at the last visit, and the dentist is not concerned about it at this point because Dylan is still so young and his teeth are still coming in. The thing that I found interesting, though, is that the dentist asked me whether there is any family history of underbites. I know that it is important to know whether others in my family have high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and the like but I did not … Continue reading →

One natural extension of an interest in genealogy could be an interest in writing biographies. Lately, I have become rather interested in learning about how to become a biographer because I think that that is something that I would really like to do. People are fascinating, and biographers are skilled at preserving people’s life stories so that others can learn about them in the present as well as in the future. What skills does a person need to become a biographer? Since biographies are books, biographers must be skilled at writing. Since biographies are works of non – fiction, biographers … Continue reading →

Many people turn to their family’s past when they are looking for a name for their baby. Including family names in the names of your children is a wonderful way to honor members of your family both past and present. That said, using family names can be a bit of a tricky situation to navigate. For example, some people are easily offended. If you choose a name from one side of the family and not the other, someone’s feathers may be ruffled. As hard as it may be to deal with the ruffled feathers, the decision about your baby’s name … Continue reading →

The ancestry of Democrat Elizabeth Warren is still a topic that is raising questions. A few months ago, a genealogist determined that Warren did, really, have Cherokee ancestry. Shortly after that, there were blogs that stated that there wasn’t any credible evidence that this was so. Now, another genealogist says that Elizabeth Warren really doesn’t have Cherokee ancestry. In Massachusetts, the current Senator is Scott Brown, who is a Republican. Elizabeth Warren, who is a Democrat, is running against him for the Senate seat he currently holds. The winner will be decided in the 2012 election. It has become common … Continue reading →

It is amazing how much can be learned about a person’s heritage just by taking a close look at the person’s DNA. A recent study investigated the genetics of people who are descended from Melungeons. It turned out that the origins of this group were not as people expected. What does the word “Melungeon” mean? If you look up the meaning in the ROOTS Genealogical Dictionary you get a lot of different answers. Some have said that the Melungeons were descendants of Portuguese sailors. Others define this group as the descendents of Spanish and Portuguese sailors who had children with … Continue reading →

A recent poll was conducted by YouGov for the FindMyPast genealogy website. People were asked to indicate who they thought were the world’s best leaders with Irish ancestry. The top of the list included some former United States Presidents, and the current President of the United States. FindMyPast is a popular genealogy website that is based in Dublin, Ireland. They recently had a poll that was conducted for them by YouGov. The YouGov company conducts global market research that provides insights for brands from around the world. They offer companies a way to understand their consumers and the wider world. … Continue reading →

I have never been much of a numbers person. Math was never my strong suit in school, and still I shy away from all things numerical. Imagine my horror when I was reading about methods for organizing genealogy research and came across – gasp – numbering systems. It turns out that many genealogists use numbers to organize the information that they collect about their ancestors. There are established numbering systems that help genealogists organize their research so that they can easily follow any line of ancestors through their family tree. The numbering systems identify individuals and their relationships to each … Continue reading →