Family Photos: Playing games

Several years ago, I interviewed several major Jewish genealogy personalities for a Jerusalem Post article on how to get children interested in genealogy.

Judith told me that since her grandchildren were toddlers, she would spread out the family photos and go over their names. They soon recognized their ancestors and relatives.

Marlene Bishow of the JGS of Greater Washington (DC), hosting this year's 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, shared that her grandmother went over index cards with family information with Marlene.

These were grass-roots, personal efforts, and now there's an even easier way to encourage children and involve adults in learning who's who in your family - a true multi-generational effort in the form of a family memory game created by MyHeritage.com for its members.

MyHeritage.com has just created a family memory game - a set of family photo cards personalized for your own family - and that can be played like other matching picture games. Anyone can match the two chickens or two shapes, but can you match the cards for Great-Aunt Rose or Great-Grandfather Aaron?

It can be played for free online or card sets may be ordered to use at home - and they'd make great gifts.

Tracing the Tribe thinks this new game and the card sets will be a great hit with genealogists who are always looking for ways to get their families involved in their quest.

According to the press release,

The game, one of the first ever online family tree games, automatically generates beautiful personalized picture cards of close relatives and ancestors - based on each user’s family tree. Following the same rules as a typical memory card game, users can play online against other family members, or solo against the clock. With a webcam option, players can even include a live picture of themselves in one pair of the cards – providing added entertainment particularly for younger players. 

The game, one of the first ever online family tree games, automatically generates beautiful personalized picture cards of close relatives and ancestors - based on each user’s family tree. Following the same rules as a typical memory card game, users can play online against other family members, or solo against the clock. With a webcam option, players can even include a live picture of themselves in one pair of the cards – providing added entertainment particularly for younger players. 

The game is recommended for all users with a family tree that features photos of relatives. Click here to view an image of the game.

If you are already a member and enjoy the online version, order the printed cards, compiled from information already in your family tree, from MyHeritage.com to play at home, to take along on vacations or to family reunions. The card sets are available through the company's new partnership with AncestryGames.com.

Each deck of  60 handmade personalized cards features up to 30 relatives of the user's choice and includes birth/death dates and locations as listed in the family tree. Each deck (up to three sets) ordered costs $20 each (plus shipping; US $7, international $16). That shipping charge covers up to three decks.

For more information, see the press release link above or go the MyHeritage blog post.

New Mexico: It's snowing!

Today has been very different.

After a long time in the Middle East, Tracing the Tribe is watching snow come down!

This morning began with cold rain and, within just the past 10 minutes, it has begun snowing ... and sticking!

The weather reports predicted this, and since I barely remember how to drive in the snow - it's been a very long time - yesterday we made a supermarket run in case we had to stay home for a day or so.

Now I have no excuse but to catch up on a mountain of email and blogging.

I don't think our snowfall will rival my good friend Thomas MacEntee's Chicago blizzard but - for me - this seems quite enough!

Mother Nature also seems to be preparing me for my February appearances at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City!

Fun: Are you a genealogy geek?

ProGenealogists' Natalie Cottrill shares the telltale signs of finally realizing that you're a genealogy geek.

Here are some:

-- You know that Ahnentahfel is not an Egyptian Pharoah.

--You don’t travel with just a briefcase or folder back and forth to various research settings, but instead you carry in BOXES of genealogy.

-- You have put an old board across the handrails of your treadmill to put your laptop on so that you can keep researching ancestors while taking a walk.

Read the complete list here.

Peeling the layers: Onion genealogy

Peeling an onion can make you cry.

This Onion, however, brings tears of laughter.

Back in 2002 - long before many geneablogs existed - the satire site seemed to forecast some of today's genealogy problems.

Dick Eastman's newsletter pointed to this old Onion article, so I went to take a look. I'm glad I did. Thanks, Dick.

I used to read The Onion frequently, but life has just gotten too busy. This post offered some interesting tips to working on one's family history.

Here are some:

-- Avoid this common mistake made by many first-time genealogists: Search for people with the same last name, not first. [Tracing the Tribe might also add that if you are creating an index, it be done by surname, not given name. It seems obvious, doesn't it? But we've seen a foreign cemetery index done by first name. Oy.]

-- Note to women: In this society, it is unimportant to know anything about your lineage on your mother's side. Just skip it altogether. [NOT! There are many genealogists who would like a piece of the article's author.]

-- Go to your oldest living relative and ask him or her about your lineage. Work your way down to the second, third, and fourth oldest until you get to someone who makes some sense. [and make sure to audio and video record each of these people, of course.]

Read the rest of them.

JGSLA 2010: Jewpardy is back!

Don't know an ahnentafel from a taffy apple? A Gedcom from a Jedi?

If you love game shows and you love genealogy, this is the event for you! Just come along and join the fun at JGSLA 2010, July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Tracing the Tribe had such a great time at the Jewish Genealogical Game Show Night (aka Jewpardy) at last year's Philadelphia conference that I wanted to give this year's edition a mention all on its own!

Be prepared to roll in the aisles (wear appropriate attire!) and laugh your socks off (just wear sandals!) with emcee Jordan Auslander, a perennial comedic favorite (and accomplished genealogist).

Regardless of whether you're a potential contestant or an innocent bystander, you'll love this fun-filled program. Last year, we saw Team Litvak vs Team Galizianer, Team Sephard vs Team Ashkenaz. Who knows what's in store this year?

The 2010 edition will feature new "Jewpardy" answers to stump professionals and challenge newbies. Now's the time to review your knowledge of terminology, historical facts, Jewish geography and Yiddish slang. Flex those fingers, as you've got to be able to hit a buzzer on cue!

Jordan is the consummate gameshow host and nothing - we mean nothing - is sacred!

There'll even be prizes.

Mark your conference calendar now for 10.30-11.30pm, Monday, July 12.

This event is only for registered conference-goers, so don't miss the fun. If you haven't registered yet, this is another reason not to miss JGSLA 2010; click the link to find all essential details.

Passover: The perfect genealogy holiday!

As we read the Haggada during our seders, we are reminded that each of us is considered to have come out of Egypt into the Land of Israel.

For many of our families, it was only one stop on the immigration trail.

If our ancestors had not left their homes in many countries, we might not be here today celebrating this ancient holiday.

Here are two resources to consider for this holiday.

Looking for a way to bring some humor into your seder?

Jacob Richman has a list of 108 Passover YouTube videos at his website. It runs from serious to wacky to satiric to just fun - with something for everyone. Here are some of them:

Matzo Man
Manischewitzville
Matzah Madness
The Passover Seder Symbols Song
20 Things To Do With Matzah
Ask Moses: Why eat Matzah on Passover?
Who Let The Jews Out
Passover Blues
Get Down with Moses
Japanese Passover Tip
The Story of Passover in 7 minutes
Ofra Haza - Deliver Us
Shlock Rock - "Seder Too"
Moshe's Rap
The Gefilte Fish Chronicles
Passover Recipe - Kosher Brownies
The Aviv Matzha Story
The Barry Sisters Tribute - Passover Yiddish Medley
Sixty Second Seder
Aish: The Great Escape
Dayeinu (Hebrew, Sephardi)
Hand Made Matza Baking with David Sussman
Chad Gadya in Hebrew, Chava Alberstein
Had Gadya in Arabic (Moroccan singer)
Chad Gadya in Yiddish by Moishe Oysher

For a cyber exhibit of non-traditional Haggadot from the National Library of Israel, click here. Unfortunately, I can only find the section in Hebrew. However, there is a number on the right for each of the 28 items. Click on each and view the online exhibit or hit the PDF file on the right for each and see the Haggada that way, page by page. Videos and songs are lower down on the list.

Since the early 20th century, there has been a shift to non-traditional Haggadah - the text that provides the order of the Passover seder - which uses only some of the traditional text and has various additions.

It reflects changes in society, culture, Jewish history, new trends, the creation of Israel and more.

The Library has more than 600 non-traditional Haggadot. Of these, 28 have been chosen for the online exhibit. They represent various types: kibbutzim, youth movements, the Jewish Brigade, satirical Haggadot etc.

It also includes videos (kibbutz Passover and Omer ceremony) and recordings of seder songs.

Enjoy! And search previous Passover postings here on Tracing the Tribe.

TV: Genealogy shows we want to see

Our favorite creative geneablogger, Thomas MacEntee, has produced a list of genealogy shows that we'd all like to see.

Do we have a T-shirt entrepreneur out there who can see the possibilities of producing some of these for sale at upcoming genealogy conferences?

Although his post at "Destination: Austin Family" called these "failed genealogy television shows," Tracing the Tribe believes it's just because no one in TV Land is smart enough to actually produce these!

CAVEAT: Do not read this list or his original post while eating or drinking. At the least, cover your keyboard with plastic!

There's a long list, so here are just some that Tracing the Tribe really liked. Visit Thomas' blog to see the complete list.

Survivor: Ellis Island
Genealogists at the Apollo
America's Funniest Genealogists
Genealogists Gone Wild!
The Microfiche Reader Endurance Hour
When Cemetery Fanatics Attack!
MTV's Rock The Census
Who Wants To Marry A Genealogist?
Escape From The Archives
Not Without My Ahnentafels!
Valley of the Deeds
Touched By An Ancestor
Addicted To Genealogy Conferences
The Insatiable Family Historian
Ancestry Peep Show: Grannies Give It Up
The Secret, Mysterious Life of Genealogists
Dude, Where's My Pedigree?

Not to be outdone, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings offered some from his talk on "Genealogy is Fun! Seriously!"

Desperate Genealogists
Are You Smarter Than a Genealogist?
Genealogy Idol

My suggestion: "I'm a genealogist - Don't get me out of here" (set in an archive, of course!).

Sheri Fenley suggested Thomas could sell these as bumper stickers or coffee mugs. Personally, I think they'd make great T-shirts to wear at those conferences to which we are so addicted.

Perhaps Thomas will surprise the geneabloggers at Jamboree 2010? Last year, we received "rock star" ribbons for our badges. Anyone taking bets on what our ribbons will read this year?

Do you have shows to add to the list? Please post them below in comments.

Are you a poet? Don't know it?

Want to be a visual poet? Yes, you can!

Not particularly genealogical in nature, but still fun, is ResearchBuzz's great post on a new fun application called FlickrPoet.

Click here and input text, a poem, a paragraph and it will search for the words and illustrate them with Flickr images. The input screen is black, but don't let that worry you, just type in the words you desire and click "show story."

Photos illustrating your words show up below the story box. To do a new text input, refresh the screen to remove the previous illustrations and clear the story box.

If you can't remember any song verses or poems, click here, a compendium of many writers, poets, quotes and much more.

For fun, I tried Shel Silverstein's "Bear In There." Here's the whole poem:

There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire
--He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there
--That Polary Bear In our Fridgitydaire.

And here's the display for lines eight-11:

The app is a bit quirky. I wanted to use the first seven lines, but it wouldn't let me use the word"hairy," admonishing me to keep the language clean. The fact that the bear's paws were covered in butter didn't seem to be the problem.

The words in the picture are sometimes hard to read (light letters on generally light backgrounds). You may also get different pictures if you do a new search with the same words, but you can't replace individual pictures.

Have fun!

Fun: New Jewish tunes for the holiday

Many Tracing the Tribe readers - at least those in the US - will be eating Chinese and going to the movies tomorrow.

Here's something else to occupy you if that's a relevant description of your day: The Forward's J.J. Goldberg offers a selection of very funny holiday videos in his blog post, Give It a Rest, Adam Sandler: The New Jewish Holiday Tunes.

He begins by telling us to give Adam Sandler's “Chanukah Song” a rest after 15 years, lists some new ones and provides some very funny videos, straight from YouTube.

Since Tracing the Tribe has already covered the usual Christmas songs written by MOTs, here are Goldberg's choices for more holiday expressions, sure to put a smile on your face.

His choices include "Chinese Food for Christmas," a Chipmunks' parody, rap and gangsta-rap renditions, Lex Friedman's medley of holiday songs that haven't made the top 10 (yet!), the hysterical "Jewish Christmas Song" by an unknown, and a few more.

Go to his blog link above and enjoy a little!

New York: No more bake sales?

We grew up with bake sales.

We remember the yummy things our moms baked for our school's bake sales, and we also remember the goodies we baked for our own kids when they were at school.

How sad that New York City has cancelled its bake sales.

For some nostalgic memories (rice krispie and cocoa krispie bars, peanut butter cookies, cupcakes, brownies and more), see this New York Times op-ed by Roz Chast, along with an interactive media show.

You may have noticed that there are some people in the world who dislike brownies because they are not as healthy as carrots. Why, they ask, would you eat a lemon square when you could just as easily help yourself to a piece of delicious raw cauliflower? It’s a mystery.

Broccoli and carrots have their time and place, but instead of bake sales? Who remembers when they ate salad? What kinds of warm-and-fuzzy memories are those?

Chast ends with:

In their heart of hearts, the people who took away school bake sales know, as I do, that not one kid is going to weigh one ounce less because of a cupcake ban. It’s just going to make a day that was sweet a little less sweet.

Now, if I can only find a jar of Marshmallow Fluff in Tel Aviv, I'll whip up a pan of rice krispie bars. I haven't made them in decades, but it seems a fitting protest activity.

What about you?

And if you'd like a great recipe for adult rice krispie bars (with chocolate and peanut butter), click here - just remember to scroll all the way down.

Jewish humor: 5 must-read books

Laughing is good, because too much genealogy is too much of a good thing!

Tracing the Tribe likes laughter, and Sarah at the Jewish Publication Society Blog has just listed five must-read books on Jewish humor.

Take a laugh break, thanks to Sarah, who adds her comments on each book and some Jewish humor links.

William Novak and Moshe Waldoks' The Big Book of Jewish Humor

Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People

Jerry Seinfeld's SeinLanguage

Woody Allen's Mere Anarchy

David Minkoff's Oy!: The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes

Have fun!

And, if this doesn't keep you occupied, read the previous JPS blog post on Jewish jokes spotlighting a website that offers - every Tuesday and Thursday - a new very short video with a new (old) joke.

Food: Bird's the word

While not exactly a Jewish genealogy story, this story provides some genuine food for thought, given our people's affectionate connection to the chicken.

I'm not sure if these recipes will help cold or flu symptoms, but they are certainly different!

Tracing the Tribe used to have a cookbook purporting 101 ways to cook chicken. I think it is actually 1,001 ways to prepare this fowl, once you figure in all the ethnic recipes.

Today's New York Times food section offers a great fowl story here.

While US-style Southern fried chicken may include milk or buttermilk in the process - a big problem for those observing kashrut or who are lactose-intolerant - here are a bunch of possibilities with nary a cow in sight. But MSG may figure in.

There are many questions and varying opinions, such as which is better, buttermilk or brine, batter or dry dredging, shallow or deep fry? But without seasoning, fried chicken is blah.

Some of these are rather labor intensive, so the best way of enjoying them is in the restaurants given at the end of the story.

How about:

- Fried chicken with Thai chilies, a thin-crusted, spice-rubbed project that takes five days, begins in a steam oven, ends in a wok, flavored with turmeric, fennel seed, ginger, fish sauce and smoked simple syrup.

-Rub a whole chicken with white vinegar and malt syrup; season inside bird with five-spice powder, poultry seasoning, ginger and garlic; hang it for five hours in front of a fan to dry skin. Deep-fry whole. Glaze with sugar, Thai fish sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and soy sauce with with slices of deep-fried garlic. Hack bird to pieces and pour glaze on top.

- Dark-meat double-fried pieces, brushed with a spicy Korean-influenced glaze.

- A variation on American fried chicken has rice flour in the batter and Old Bay seasoning, and comes with four sauces, Chinese-style mu shu pancakes for wrapping; and a bowl of raw vegetables like baby carrots, radishes and fushimi peppers, plus leaves of shiso, basil and mint.

- Three Japanese styles for marinated wings. Katsu, with crisp panko (light Japanese bread crumbs) for pounded breasts; karaage, ginger-and-garlic-marinated thighs, with a light sweet potato crust; and nagoya, marinated in soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), black pepper and sesame seeds, and two trips to the deep fryer.

- In the Philippines, fried wings are tossed with roasted salt and black pepper, fish sauce and thin slices of fresh green chili, or another mix contains garlic, fermented fish sauce, lemon grass and palm vinegar.

- A Latin version offers small chicken pieces marinated in garlic, lime juice, black pepper and sazón Goya (Latin-Caribbean mix of MSG, cumin, coriander seed and annatto), served with lime wedges and pickled onion rings.

Tracing the Tribe is also very partial to Persian jujeh-kabob - not fried, no MSG, no dairy - which marinates boneless chicken breast in fresh lime juice, oil, saffron (a must), chopped onion and some garlic, salt and pepper. Marinate chicken breast cubes for two days, place on skewers, grill over a real charcoal fire (in a pinch, use oven broiler). Serve with lots of lime wedges, if you have them, or lemon. The taste is something else and two days of marination is really required (refrigerator, of course, with frequent mixing) for full flavor.

One dish I haven't made since we lived in Los Angeles is Asian marinated drumettes that I would make for parties. Drumettes are chicken wings with the top joint removed and look like miniature drumsticks with a ball of meat at the top - easy to eat and perfect finger food.

There are a million recipes for this, and it takes well to any combination of marinating sauces (soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sweet chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, with or without sweet rice wine or sherry, garlic, honey, mustard, etc.). Mix all the sauce ingredients together, bring to boil and cool, pour over the wings in a heavy aluminum foil pan lined with parchment baking paper (to prevent sticking - these are REALLY sticky) and refrigerate overnight. Bake them at 375 (make sure they don't burn) for about an hour. Cool, refrigerate and heat-up again before serving the next day. The continuing marination and two bakings give the wings a deep rich mahogany color and are absolutely delicious. I used to make big pans of these for parties. they don't sell ready-made drumettes in Israel (or at least I haven't found them yet) and I'm not about to cut tons of them myself. One can either blog or make drumettes!

However you prepare your chicken, do not simply "kill it and grill it."

If you are in range of New York City, the article gives a list of restaurants for these chicken delights.

Not hungry yet? Today's NYT also has a great Jewish deli story here. If you can't resist running out to the nearest deli after reading that one, put in my order for a fresh roast turkey breast on rye, Russian on the side, a large whole sour and some really good coleslaw.

Carnival of Genealogy 81: The day the geneablogs died

Tracing the Tribe is hosting its first Carnival of Genealogy, and sincerely thanks geneacolleagues for sending in such interesting posts.

A special shout-out to footnoteMaven for her theme badge (see right).

Please remember that this was a virtual exercise - no blog sustained injuries or died during this 81st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. Certified blog wranglers were present at all times to provide proper care.

Keeping in tune with the times, here's Tracing the Tribe's entry a la Twitter for the 81st Carnival of Genealogy:

ICYMI twitty cre8v fab 1st jugen blog TTT ded 2day @3+yo.b2006 w/2500 posts.#10 pop genblog + honors.J/K.L8R 4mor

In case you can't read it, ask any 10-year-old. If you don't have one handy, here's a translation:

In case you missed it, the witty, creative, fabulous first Jewish genealogy blog Tracing the Tribe died today at 3-plus years of age. Born in 2006 and with 2,500 posts, it was the #10 ranked most popular genealogy blog and had other honors. Just kidding. Later for more.

There was even room for nine more characters!

Okay, back to our geneablogger colleagues. Some carnivals list submissions in alpha order or in a very subjective best-first. Tracing the Tribe will list them as they arrived. Do read all of them!

Amir Dekel: R.I.P. Dream-of-Genea at I Dream of Genea(logy). Amir's work is always good for a giggle. I'm still grinning over this one.

The 'I Dream of Genea(logy)' blog died earlier this morning at about 5:30am in a private sector of underused disk space in the Blogger.com hosting facility. It was just a little over one year old at time of death and cause of death has not yet been determined although it is highly likely that the young blog died of boredom and neglect by its owner. Proper archiving and burial will take place later this evening and the final resting place will be at the owner's external backup HD device. ...

Sharon Klein: Thanks For The Memories at Genealogy. Sharon reported on how her deceased blog helped her connect with bloggers and family members and how two cousins found her while Googling for a mutual cousin. She's not going anywhere - she's hooked on geneablogging!

Earline Bradt: COG #81 - A Short But Full Life at Ancestral Notes. Earline covers the short life of her blog, ending with:

...Ancestral Notes can be viewed in the Google cache anytime, day or night. Private cremation of remains. Donations can be made to the Genealogy database of your choice in lieu of flowers.

Apple: What Is and What Could Be at Apple's Tree. Apple wrote a 2019 obit when her blog's circulation was 250 million, and a GeneaVillage Gazette editorial dated December 2009:

I have been unhappy with Apple's Tree for several months now and perhaps I've been a little hard on myself - but only a little. Writing about what could be will hopefully point me back in the right direction. This was a very interesting exercise and harder to write than I thought it would be.

Ken Spangler: COG #81 ? Blog Obituaries at Beyond Fiction. Hopefully, this won't happen soon but just in case, this is what would be on my blog!

...Arrangements have been made for the blog to continue to stay online for at least another year or so. No new posts will be added but those who would like to take one last look at Ken’s writings will have an opportunity to do so. After that, it will be left to the descendants of Ken Spangler to continue his quest.

Bill West: "WiNG-NUTS MOURN GENEABLOG'S PASSING" at West in New England. Although Bill claims this was a hard one to figure out, I'm still laughing:

... Rumor has it that a secret society of devotees known as WiNG-nuts are decrying the early demise of WiNG and some claim it's not dead but merely the victim of a vast conspiracy of town hall clerks.

But whatever the case, we bid farewell to "West in New England" with a softly murmured "Well done, o good and faithful geneablog..."

footnoteMaven: The Day footnoteMaven's Blog Died at footnoteMaven. fM's work is always evocative, as her piece on Big Blue Bird demonstrates:

... The blog struggled for time, eventually succumbing to a vociferous bird, by the name of Twitter;

Twitter fed on time. And thus, it consumed all fM had left, until the blog was no more.

And only the memories remained…

Jasia: Creative Gene's Obituary (COG #81) at Creative Gene. Jasia, the COG Queen, covered her blog's life and beginnings, her heritage and more.

... Creative Gene is survived by an extensive network of genealogy blogs written by friends ....

Jessica Oswalt: If Something Were To Happen ... at Jessica's Genejournal. Her piece detailed her back-up plan in case her blog were to disappear. Good advice!

John Newmark: Writing a Blog Obituary posted at TransylvanianDutch. Rumors are that the cause of death for TransDutch was beverage-related:

... The Coroner's Report is uncertain about cause of death. There are rumors that a programmer in Mountain View, California spilled a glass of orange juice on the servers and the bits and bytes containing two years worth of data were lost in a second. Author, John Newmark, hadn't backed up the posts. ...

Contributions should be sent to the Dead Blog Fund.

Leslie Mehana: RIP Genea-Rooter: You Made a Good Start at Rooting Around Genealogy.

... But buck up, old girl, you made your Wordless Wednesdays, you added some wisdom to the search. Better luck next time. ...

Randy Seaver: Genea-Musings dies - blogger goes... at Genea-Musings. Randy asks: When a blog dies, what happens to the blogger? Vacation? Funny Farm? Rest and recuperation? Back to real life? All of the above? Are there enough beds at the Farm for all of us?

...the writer of Genea-Musings was admitted today to the Geneaholic wing of the Geneabloggers Sunnybrook Farm in Salt Lake City, Utah for rest and rehabilitation. His lovely wife is there with him... trying to pry his fingers off the wornk eyboard thatk eeps makingt ypographic error sin everyp ost. He just keeps repeating "Control-C, Control-V, spell check, damn fingers, genealogical proof standard, it's not all on the internet, Ancestry is..., they're coming to take my blog away! it's Carnival time, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun rocks..."

What comes next? It's the call for submissions for the 82nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, of course. The deadline for entries is October 15. So sharpen your virtual pencils and get ready to write:

The guest host is Kathryn Doyle of the California Genealogical Society and Library blog, and the topic is:

What's your favorite genealogical society?
Do you belong to a society?
Tell us why! Or if not, why not?

Kathryn's COG will be the inaugural edition of the all-new GenSo Blog Carnival, which will focus strictly on genealogical societies and will begin in January 2010. She'll provide more details about the GenSo Carnival in her post, so stay tuned for more.

Yom Kippur: Who's coming to your break-fast?

For a twist on the usual "name five people you'd like to have dinner with," the JPS Blog posted this question: Name five Jewish authors (living or not) you'd like to break the Yom Kippur fast with.

Sarah's JPS Blog post listed Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead), Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are), Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is illuminated), Philip Roth (Portnoy's Complaint) and Shel Silverstein (The Giving Tree and others).

Hmmmm.

Tracing the Tribe would like to break-the-fast with this group: Cecil Roth (History of the Marranos ... uh ... Conversos!), Pere Bonnin (Sangre Judia), Dr. Spencer Wells (DNA books), Jon Entine (Abraham's Children) and Mel Brooks (aka Melvin Kaminsky, too many too list), but I'm also adding in Jeff Malka (Sephardic Genealogy). The more the merrier.

Anyone else coming? Let me know as I have to order the bagels.

While searching around, I found some interesting online resources such as Quoteland.com. Here's one of Mel's lines:

"Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him."

Almost like genealogy, except our hundreds or thousands of separate people live in our genealogy software programs.

And this one at Famous Quotes & Authors, particularly fitting:

Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So, for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.

We have a choice of laughing or crying through life. I choose laughter.

Onion or plain? Let me know.

Philly 2009: Game show night, August 4

Who said genealogists don't know how to have fun?

Calling all groyse machers, alter kockers, yentas, balabustas and mavens to the Jewish Genealogical Game Show Night, at 8.30pm, Tuesday, August 4, produced by Pamela Weisberger and Ron Arons.

Hosted by the always-hilarious and wildly-inappropriate, Jordan Auslander,
this will be an evening of entertainment in which conference attendees can
demonstrate their genealogical knowledge, historical acumen and research
skills by participating in game show formats adapted to the world of Jewish
genealogy, including: "Jewpardy," "Family Feud" and "Name that Jew!"

We will have Litvaks squaring off against Galitzianers, Ashkenazis versus
Sephardim, and experts versus amateurs, demonstrating how much they know and how much they like showing off how much they know.

The surprises and prizes will range from a genuine Golem clay figurine from Prague (made in Japan, no doubt); autographed books including "Talk Dirty Yiddish," "Chanukah Guilt" and "Jewish Fairytales;" tea named after your Uncle Irving; Bernie Madoff souvenirs; Soviet-style Polish candies that Bubbe used to make back in the shtetl; MP3 players with Jewish tunes, designer T-shirts for the 2010 IAJGS conference (be the first on your block!) and more.

Want to participate? Just put your name in the shtreimel. Contestants will be chosen at random that evening. The producers are also seeking contestants for the following Family Feud teams: Galitzianer, Litvak, Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Email Pamela Weisberger now to be categorized and take your shot at stardom.

Even if you can't yet talk dirty in Yiddish, can't tell an Ahnentafel from a Gedcom, and don't know if your first cousin twice removed is closer to you than your third cousin once removed, come to have fun, be enlightened, show off your chutzpah, and laugh out loud.

See you on Tuesday night!

Television: More genealogy-related shows?

Genea-blogger colleague Bill West chimed in on the scheduling delay in the US-version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" and provided ideas for additional genealogy-related shows.

Here are Bill's ideas, followed by mine. Anyone else have gen-related program ideas?

Bill's ideas:

1. "I'm a Genealogist, Get Me Out of Here? - The adventures of five researchers stranded in the Library of Congress. [Note from Schelly: But would we really want to leave? This takes it from the reality genre to the fantasy. Don't we all want to be locked into a library? Or is it just me?]

2. "Genealogy Medium" - Examines the genealogy of the ghosts that Alison DuBois talks with.

3. "Last Gedcom Standing" - Teams of genealogists examine family trees looking for errors.

I'm adding these:

4. "Lost" - Drop teams of genealogists (without language skills) in an unknown international location and ask them to find the family history of a certain family from that location within a set time frame. The first team to complete the task wins either a lot of cash or subscriptions to all the paid-access databases!

And for kids:

5. "Where in the World is Waldo's Family?" - Kids find clues to family history in this animated show.

Okay, time for your ideas!

Music: Just for fun

We've all been working way too hard on genealogy and now so many of us are preparing for Passover. Take a break with some toe-tapping fun. Kick back for a few minutes!

This post is subtitled "music to clean your kitchen cabinets by." Enjoy!

Can you imagine your great-grandparents, grandparents or parents dancing to this?




And after a hard day's work in an archive, should we be singing this one in Yiddish? But which one? Eastern or Western?



Remember Alan Sherman and his parodies? Here's a 1965 bit with Dean Martin and Vic Damone.



There's much more out there, such as anything by Mickey Katz, especially his "Duvid Crocket," with a great line about the Litvaks vs the Galitzianers.

The wonderful world of strange book titles

Are we in the silly season yet?

Ever wonder about book titles? Dream about strange ones in your sleep? If you do, then write up a book to go along with the weird title and enter this contest. Start planning for next year!

Bookseller magazine in the UK sponsors the annual Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year, as detailed here in the New York Times.

The winner was “The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais” with runner-ups “Curbside Consultation of the Colon,” “The Large Sieve and Its Applications,” “Strip and Knit With Style” and “Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring.”

I'm sure "Strip and Knit With Style" gave the British judges some giggles, even though this "strip" means cutting fabrics into strips and knitting with the strips.

The Diagram Prize began in 1978 as a way for Bruce Robertson, co-founder of the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London, to combat his ennui at the Frankfurt Book Fair. That was a bumper year for odd titles — nominees included “100 Years of British Retail Catering” and “50 New Poodle Grooming Styles” — but the runaway winner was “Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Nude Mice.”

Are we seeing a pattern here, with "strip" and "nude"?

In 2005, the winner was “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It.” Genealogists want to know how we can ask them questions - and get the answers - about our ancestors.

Other past winners:

“Versailles: The View From Sweden” (Is that like seeing Russia from Alaska?)
“Weeds in a Changing World”
“Reusing Old Graves” At last, something for genealogists.

Past titles that didn't make the cut:

“A Pictorial Book of Tongue Coatings”
“Sex After Death”
“Waterproofing Your Child”
“Cheese Problems Solved”

The rules are pretty simple:

Publishers are not allowed to nominate their own books, so as to prevent them from giving books willfully odd names. That is pretty much the only rule. Anyone can nominate a title, and the public is invited to vote online at thebookseller.com.The prize’s administrators try not to read the books, Mr. Stone said, because doing so might “cloud our judgment.”

Bookseller also held last year's Diagram of Diagrams competition, a take-off on the Booker Prize's Booker of Bookers, for the best of all time. The Diagram went to “Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers.” I can't even imagine what that's about. Are they cancelling the postmen? Is this like cancelling a stamp? How do the postmen fit in those machines?

In 1992, “How to Avoid Huge Ships,” by an old sea captain, garnered the award. It is listed on Amazon, and one tongue-in-cheek reader commented that he wished it had included more tips on differentiating between huge and less huge ships, so readers could be sure “what size of ship they were avoiding.”

Read the complete article at the link above.

Photos: Old time images

Over the years, we've had old-time photos taken at various fairs and tourist spots. It involved putting on old costumes and becoming stars of sepia prints - you know, those brownish prints that at first glance indicates "old," as in historic?

They are here somewhere in my masses of photographs. I do remember the family looking like Daniel Boone's traveling companions, some with rifles; civil war-era fancy dress, uniforms of various periods, cowboys, pioneers, 1920s gangsters - you name it.

How confused will our descendants be when they discover these instant ancestors? Although my main line didn't arrive here until 1898, how did we get family photos of the Civil War, of frontiersmen and pioneers.

You too can confuse future generations and take family photos in historical costumes.

I guess it is like those painters who produced beautiful portaits of women, dripping with diamonds and other fantastic gems - although that jewelry never existed. How many descendants are still looking for that missing treasure, because it was in that painting of a great-grandmother.

Now, if you really want to confuse your descendants, inscribe the photos on the back using brown ink and a real pen-nib - not a ball-point pen or marker, please!

Is this payback for our own ancestors leaving us buckets of unlabeled photographs? I guess not, but perhaps it will inspire future generations to do some serious homework and realize those prominently displayed photographs are only fake family history.

Shoes are a dead giveaway, so be careful your newest Nikes - or whatever the top gear is today - aren't showing under those period costumes! Take off your glasses, if you wear them; a squint is more realistic. Hide those watches also! It's hard to claim a photograph as historic when the newest Swatch watch is showing under a sleeve.

Enjoy confusing your descendants - our ancestors certainly did the same to us with name changes, missing data, unlabeled photos and conflicting information.

Do leave a note, however, in your papers telling the truth about those "historic" images!

How many readers have these sorts of photographs? What were your favorite costumes?

DNA: Vending machines?

Here's a new resource for strange and funny news. It caught my eye because of its article on the future possibilities of DNA vending machines.

Disclaimer: This is in the realm of fun, humor and other jetlag-alleviating treatments.

Hmmmm ... want to get a lot of relatives tested in one place? Photo booths already seem to be on the scene of social events. Imagine getting a DNA booth for your social event? The possibilities are there. It may be easier than trailing Uncle Max during the party trying to grab a glass and test the only hold-out of your great-great-grandfather's direct line - and Max may have more fun doing it. All you'd need to do is pay for the booth. Getting genetic DNA samples from those who don't want to be tested requires some creativity - and a somewhat deep pocket.

Read NonsenseNews.net for the story.

Chicago, IL – Have you checked out the new vending machine in the break room? your co-worker asks. No, you say and ask, Why? It’s weird, he replies. How so? you inquire. I can’t even explain it man, he replies. C’mon, you say and it goes on like this for some time until you get off your lazy butt and walk yourself down to the break room and there it is. Left of the soda, but right of the snack machine. No, not the sink. Your other right. Ah. What? D.N.A.? What does it sell? Ten dollars! That seems kinda steep.

DNA Vending Machines are now popping up all over workplaces across North America and Europe. These machines dispense easy to use DNA Test Kits that can be used by two people looking to find out if they are related and how closely.

A kit costs $10 and is no larger than the box set of Season 1 of LOST. It contains two cotton swabs, four plastic pouches for hair follicles and a small, baseball sized device with a paper feeder that reads the DNA samples, lights up and prints out results.

MENO-DNA, the distributor of DNA Test Kit Vending Machines has reported strong interest and sales since installing the machines in March. “The technology is very exciting to people and they are happy to finally have such unlimited access.” MENO-DNA seems to strongly believe that there is money to be made in vending machine-style DNA Test Kits.

Read more to learn who might be buying if this is ever available, and other equally funny if false stories.