Photos and comments from Arizona and around the world
I like huge fields of flowers, but have come to appreciate the beauty in single blooms. It is a remarkable experience to hike through a dry and rocky desert and come upon such a display of color. It is helpful that the flowers bloom in the Spring before...
I have long known about the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group, previously known at the Utah Valley PAF Users Group. For me, it has always been as legendary as the Homebrew Computer Club. Corporate records for Utah show that the original Utah...
One of the people I was helping recently with a genealogy file had an interesting experience. She had copied the file from an online pedigree and had been researching the people in the file for some time. In the course of her research, she acquired a...
The following press release was received from the Digital Public Library of America. This opens up another kind of record not normally available to genealogists. If you think that there is no genealogical information in this type of record, perhaps you...
In between helping others with their genealogy research, I spent some time working on a lineage problem. Quite a few years ago, I checked out the family tradition that we had Mayflower passenger ancestors through Joshua Tanner's wife, Thankful Tefft....
There is really nothing imagined by artists or artisans that rivals the patterns and textures of nature. This plant shows two separate spirals, one from the right and one from the left that intersect. You may have to stare at it for a minute to see the...
The name does not really go with the cactus. You would definitely not want to cuddle this teddy bear. It is one of the most painful cactus when you get stuck. I have managed to avoid them almost entirely. But I have been around a lot of people when they...
There were a few changes today as announced by FamilySearch.org, but the basic website remains the same. Here is a current screenshot with the anticipatory announcement for today 15 April 2013. There are reports of FamilySearch Photos being opened...
We often worry about planting our gardens in the best soil with lots of fertilizer and care. Some plants don't seem to worry much about where or how they are planted. Maybe we should take a lesson from this cactus in the rocks and use the plants that...
OK, so you know that I am opinionated and you can read the title to this post. I am also aware that there are a whole lot of people out there in genealogy land who love fan charts. There are even some of my friends that make a living designing and printing...
In a blog post today, MyHeritage.com announced the release of their free genealogical database program, Family Tree Builder 7.0. You can read about the program in the post entitled, "New Release: Family Tree Builder 7.0." More later.
One of my online friends, Lee Drew of the LineageKeeper Blog said it well today with a blog post entitled, "New FamilySearch Design ~ A Left Turn?" He states in part, that the design is aimed at beginners and that the changes to the FamilySearch.org website...
From a press release on the Digital Public Library of America website: From all of us at the Digital Public Library of America, our hearts go out to those affected by the terrible events in Boston yesterday. The tragedy took place right in front of...
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a major step in making major digitized collections available in one place on the Web. Today the DPLA announces the following: At its launch this week, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is featuring...
Since Family Tree Builder 7.0 has now been officially released, I can talk about the program I have been using for the past few weeks. I was one of the few Beta testers for the new program. I was given a copy of the program and access to the online MyHeritage.com...
I like to visit some National Parks during really bad weather. The rain and/or snow is a challenge to keep the camera lenses from fogging or getting rain splattered. But the photographs are worth the challenge of the elements. This is in Zion National...
Most of the time, these very active birds are running around on the ground at a frantic rate of speed, looking for food. But every once and while, one of them pops up on a fence or railing to survey the area. One of my favorite sounds is the coo-cooing...
The colors spectrum of cactus blooms is incredible. In fact, flowers on the same plant can vary dramatically in color. This prickly pear or opuntia is a good example of the vibrant, almost fake looking, colors that appear each Spring. Once pollinated,...
First of all this photograph is actually in color. Secondly, it is almost impossible to duplicate the conditions that allowed this photo to be taken and last, it highlights the incredible forms of the cactus. This is easily one of the most dramatic shots...
The above daguerreotype was reportedly of my Great-great-great-grandfather, John Tanner. However, after some extensive research and using historical and genealogical data gleaned from dozens of sources, my daughter Amy has finally made a positive identification...
There are not words to describe these flowers and the photos do not do them justice. I have two images here so you can see the size of these blooms. All I can say is that they are much more impressive in person and overwhelming in color. This one small...
It was raining with a mixture of snow and the wind was blowing so hard it made it difficult to keep from getting the lens of the camera spattered with water. We used umbrellas that threatened to tear apart and stood under whatever cover we could find....
Even the most meticulous gardener will find a few exceptions to their carefully laid plans. Maybe the bulbs got mixed and it was impossible to tell which ones were daffodils and which ones were tulips. This is a good analogy for life, we sometimes get...
Well, we have a link. Right on the search page with everything else we have a link to the FamilySearchResearch Wiki. Life will go on and we can talk about something else. Of course, you can always type wiki.familysearch.org in the Address Bar of your...
