*** Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
*** Have you shared your family recipe with FamilySearch?
*** Mayonnaise?
*** Merging duplicates on FamilySearch
You have, with the clicking of a mouse, an enormous library of books right at your fingertips and I’ll bet you didn’t realize it. The Digital Public Library of America (http://DP.LA) is a free, national digital library that provides acces to millions of materials from libraries, archives and museums across the U.S. Are you looking (perhaps without success?) for a letter, yearbook, military record, family bible, certain photograph or a certain map? It just well may be included in the DPLA holdings. And it’s FREE!
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Besides collecting the names-dates-places of our family history, FamilySearch is collecting our family stories, memories (written, audio,video) and recipes! At RootsTech last February, at one of the opening sessions, a recipe card was placed on each of the 5000 chairs inviting each of us to share a favorite family recipe….. and to share the story of that recipe. Wanna participate? Click to www.familysearch.org/recipes.
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What’s a BLT sandwich without mayo? Do you know when this condiment was invented? According to Wikipedia, the anecdotal history of mayo is this: “One of the most common places named as the origin of mayonnaise is the town of Mahón in Menorca, Spain, where it was then taken to France after Armand de Vignerot du Plessis‘s victory over the British at the city’s port in 1756. According to this version, the sauce was originally known as salsa mayonesa in Spanish and maonesa (later maionesa) in Catalan (as it is still known in Menorca), later becoming mayonnaise as it was popularized by the French.”
Ever wanted to make your own mayonnaise? Dorothy Dean, the homemaker’s guru in Spokane between 1935-1985, shared the secret: “1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 4-6 tsp lemon juice, 1 c. salad oil. Place all in blender and blend until smooth and thick. Store in refrigerator.” Don’t know about you, but sounds like too much work to me.
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Just because FamilySearch has given so very much to the genealogical community at large, asking nothing in return except that we all share our family trees, doing so has caused heartburn for some. One of the “problems” that FamilySearch asks us to deal with is the problem of duplicates. Ron Tanner, who works for FamilySearch, explained this problem to us at Roots Tech. “Think of ten kids having 10 kids, so there are potentially 110 people who can or might enter information on Grandma. See why merging is to important??” To the computer, Catharine, Catherine, Katharine and Katherine are all totally separate names but to you and me they are not. We know that all could equally refer to our Grandma, right?
Please do consider uploading your GEDCOM to FamilySearch (folks at any Family History Center will assist) and plan to take the necessary time to manage/compare potential duplicates. (I started with 1744 and I’m down to 1243! If I can, you can!)