In this case, it’s an upcoming NBC TV show called Who Do You Think You Are?. And no, I’m not being paid in any way shape or form to promote it. But I truly think this show is going to hit the genealogy world as hard or harder than the 70s mini-series Roots.

I’ve mostly ignored the hype sent my way by Ancestry.com and a myriad of other sponsors, but today I got an email from one of Ancestry’s PR managers and decided to look a little closer.

Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame is the executive producer. The seven shows trace the family histories of seven celebreties, including Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mathew Broderick, Spike Lee, Emmit Smith, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields. I was hooked the minute I saw the promo implying that Sarah Jessica Parker has ancestors connected with the Salem Witch Trials.

Here’s hoping the show does family history due justice. Maybe OUR families will finally understand why WE’RE interested. One thing seems certain — we’re about to be inundated with questions from a few thousand newbies. Check out the clip:

Mark your calendars or set you DVRs, whichever is more appropriate… for March 5th, 8/7c. If you’re interested in spreading the word, check out Ancestry’s Spread the Word page. How clever.

Oh, and if you’re still interested in the headline feed I mentioned a couple of days ago, they’ll always be available from the Syndicated Feeds tab on the home page or the Blogroll category over on the right.

First off, my apologies for any Leonard Legends spam you may have received earlier today. I was implementing a new “feature” here at Leonard Legends & Legacies and inadvertently added something like 166 “new” posts to the site. What they really were, were a handful of articles from a few of my favorite genealogical-type bloggers.

It’s all a very thinly-veiled attempt to cover up my own inadequacies in my blogological (it is TOO a word) duties. I’ve been neither attentive nor diligent about my family history or this site in recent weeks and I’m not sure it’s going to get any better in the foreseeable future.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up or tuning out or going away. I’ll be more than happy to relay any of your discoveries to the wider audience, but for the moment, I have no particular direction.

So I’m inviting you to partake of some of the same blogger that I read on a regular basis. If you click the “Syndicated Feeds” tab on the home page, you’ll see seven of the latest headlines. Click a headline and you’ll see the article that goes with it. Click the headline on THAT page and you’ll go directly to the original site. Alternately, you can select “Blogroll” from the categories list on the right. That’ll get you a summary of the same seven articles and a link to their respective sources. Headlines/articles get updated once every hour.

So there it is… my “Declaration of Independence,” so to speak. Or, you can all it a cop out if you like. Either way, this post is likely to be stuck here for a while.

Cheers!
Rick

Why should writing your own obituary be any different than creating a will or granting power of attorney? You don’t even have to finish it because, let’s face it, most of us won’t see the grim reaper coming. But if we leave something behind, at least our grieving descendants will have an idea where to start.

My mind started down this path when I finally tracked down an obituary for an ancestor who lived in one state and ended up buried in another. “Finally,” I thought, “some answers to some very old questions.” What I got was an obituary that told me absolutely nothing about how or when he got to the other state or why he went there. What I got was a recitation of names and dates that I already had.

The one thing an obituary should NOT be is a resume. Take a cue from the obituaries that taught you the most or proved to be delightfully enlightening. Aren’t they the ones with personal recollections or anecdotes? Don’t they make note of the deceased’s pastimes and favorite places? Shouldn’t they mention hardships as well as successes?

As weird as it sounds, things do get a little easier when you write in third person. In other words, you talk about yourself as if you were a close friend or relative. “Rick always wished he lived closer to family” is easier to write than, “I wish I had never moved away.”

There are a whole host of resources and Web sites designed for this very task, so you needn’t feel conceited or self indulgent for at least exploring the possibilities. Here are a few, just off the top of my head:

• Obituaryguide.com
• EHow
• Obitnow.com
• Poynter Online

One word of warning… once you start down this path, it’s a very short hop to an autobiography… which is where I’ve been spending the majority of my free time for the past few months… and why the posts here are getting fewer and farther between. No excuses, just the facts.

Cheers!
Rick

I’m forever getting distracted as I go about my genealogical business, often duplicating, complicating, or worse of all, neglecting genealogical sources. And that “pending” folder in my file cabinet?… is about to become a drawer unto itself. I had a research plan at one time and I know I should focus on one family group at a time, but sometimes a shiny object whizzes by and completely derails my best intentions.

I don’t make New Years resolutions, but if I did, I would vow to get my genealogical poop in a group. All the research in the world goes for naught if it never gets condensed into something usable, like a compiled history of one family group. I’ve written not one, but two summaries of the life and times of my great-great-grandfather and, as always, there’s new information to be added. So that’s where I’ll be in the early part of this year… heads down on the third edition.

That, and reconciling the data in my family history software with the online database on this site. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as exporting and importing a GED file from one source to the other. Learned that one the hard way back in October.

And, taking a clue from a few ancestors past, I’ve started recording my own life and times. You never know, after all, when the grim reaper might come a-calling. Of the hundreds and hundreds of ancestors I’ve researched, only four bothered to sit down and tell me (us) what they actually did and thought in their own lifetimes. I consider those, as crude as they may have been, the real treasures of family history.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still stories to be found, research to be done, data to be recorded… but for me, I think 2010 is going to be The Year of Organization. Yeah, like a year is gonna do the trick.

How ’bout you?

Santa Claus is dead and buried in Saline County, Missouri. Or Rockingham County, North Carolina. Or Akron, Oho. It depends on which Santa Claus you’re looking for. There are quite literally hundreds of Santas listed in Ancestry.com’s databases.

None of them, interestingly enough, list The North Pole as a home address. And in the case of the Missouri Claus’s’s’s… all of them list their occupation as “None.” So’s not to be bothered during the off-season, no doubt.

Since the 1930 census data is a little blurry on the photo at left, here are the particulars:

• Santa Claus 42 Head
• Mabel Claus 36 Wife
• William Claus 15 Son
• Raymond Claus 12 Son
• Fred Claus 9 Son
• Joseph Claus 6 Son
• James Claus 3 Son
• Dorthey Claus Daughter

Fred Claus was clearly named for Santa’s bitter older brother, played by Vince Vaughn in the 2007 movie of the same name.

In the United States Obituary Collection, I found a heartwarming obituary for Philipe Joseph “Frenchy” Beauchamp, aka the Kaikoo Mall Santa. Now there’s a Santa who knows how to retire.

Philipe Joseph Beauchamp
May 3, 2007
Philipe Joseph “Frenchy” Beauchamp, 79, of Pahoa, Hawaii, a retired Frenchy’s Hydraulic Repairs owner and former Kaikoo Mall Santa Claus, died in Hilo Medical Center. He was born in Morinville, Canada. He is survived by wife Ruth; son Robert; daughters Marilyn Moss, Geraldine Holmes and Jill Wade; brother Arthur; 14 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. No services.

There are a few glitches in the Ancestry database, however, as evidenced by the alleged Santa obituary out of Boseman, Montana, which was neither Boseman NOR an obituary…

Alleged Santa Claus flasher arrested again
RAYMOND, N.H. – A Massachusetts man arrested for allegedly dropping his pants while dressed as Santa Claus has been arrested again.

Raymond High School Principal Michael Shore says people initially thought 52-year-old Richard Mullen was looking for his child when they saw him walking around the school on Tuesday morning. Shore said police were called to the school after Mullen couldn’t come up with a name.

Mullen, of Malden, Mass., pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to one charge of criminal trespassing. Bail was set at $1,000. As a condition of bail, Mullen was ordered to stay 100 yards away from any Raymond school.

His trial was scheduled for Jan. 6.

In the earlier incident, Mullen was arrested Dec. 4 at the Mall at Rockingham Park after shoppers said they saw a man, dressed as Santa Claus, drop his pants. Police say Mullen was wearing sweat pants under his costume. They charged him with disorderly conduct. Mullen was not working at the mall at the time.
———–

Now that’s just wrong on so many levels. Here’s hoping you get a visit from the real deal on Christmas Eve! With all these Santas in the records, you just KNOW there’s an original descendant at the North Pole as we speak.

Cheers!
Rick

]]> http://www.rickleonard.net/2009/12/yes-virginia-there-was-a-santa-claus/feed/ 0