Celebrate Family History Month

October is Family History Month. Looking to celebrate your family history but don't know where to begin? Here are some activities to get you started!

Create your family tree. Start with yourself and work back one generation at a time. Download free charts from Ancestry.com or you can find some fancy charts here or search Cyndi's List for other free trees and pedigree charts.

Interview family members and record family stories. You can find sample questions online or check out one our oral history books to help find inspiration.

Preserve family photos. Organize all of those family photos you've been collecting throughout the years. Track down family members to help you identify people and places in old photographs. Try scanning and uploading photos to a website and file the the originals in acid-free boxes or albums.

Make a heritage scrapbook. After collecting all of your photos and family stories, put them all together in a scrapbook. You can also include family recipes, ephemera, and record all of your family traditions and favorite memories.

Get the kids involved! All of these projects can be shared with kids and you can find other fun activities online to get the next generation interested in family history.

The Photo Detective

This is such a fun blog! The Photo Detective by Maureen A. Taylor sponsored by Family Tree Magazine investigates mystery photos sent in by readers.

Most of us have inherited boxes of unidentified photographs. Photo historian Maureen Taylor analyzes photographs using clues such as fashion, hairstyles and background props to help identify the time period and the people in the photographs. You can submit your own mystery photos for Maureen to analyze. She discusses how photographs can be used to supplement your family research and best practices for preservation.

The Photo Detective is just an enjoyable read too. There is a lot of interesting social history there and old photographs are always fun to peruse.

New Book: THE CIRCLES

The Circles : Releigh, Baffin, Drake, Hudson, York; architectural heritage /  by John R. Hedrick and  Lauren C. Griffin, produced with the support of: The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, at DePaul University. -- c2011, Scenic Illinois.

This compilation of homes captures architectural and landscape features of assorted noteworthy homes representing each of the streets which encompass The Circles.

An engineering map highlights primary geographic and historic aspects, and shows the overall layout of The Circles.

Includes are historic photos of downtown Glenview in the 1920s, along with historical background on the development of the subdivision. 

The "References" page includes assorted facts and resources relating to The Circles.

You can see The Circles in the Local History and Genealogy collection at call number RRA 720.97731 HED.  It can also be checked out in New Nonfiction at call number OVERSIZE 720.97731 HED.

Wedding Fashion Show

In case you missed the Wedding Tea and Fashion show sponsored by the Glenview History Center on March 26, a portfolio of pictures was taken that day by Victor Martinez.
Click HERE to see it.

Interviewing Your Relatives

Interviewing family members may help you learn information about family history, culture, and traditions not found in photographs. Photographs and civil records provide documentation but not the essence of the person. Information from an interview can help make that person come alive for you.

Here are ideas for interviewing your relatives, with numerous suggested interview questions.

Digital Past Images

The Illinois fincnial crisis has had a negative effect on library systems in Illinois, including our own North Suburban Library System (NSLS).

NSLS can not maintain the Digital Past website. a magnificent collection of historic images submitted by libraries, museums, and other educationasl and cultural organizations in northeastern Illinois.

Thankfully, the Illinois Sate Library has announced that the Digital Past collections have been migrated to the Illinois Digital Archives (IDA).

The Glenview Area History images are now available to the public through the IDA.

Glenview Veterans Oral History Project

A reception in the Maynard Room, 2-4 PM on March 14, will honor the veterans who participated in the Glenview Veterans Oral History (GVOH) Project, as well as the students and teachers who worked with the Library on it.

The following Animoto slide-show includes selected photos from some of the interviews. Historic pictures are seen along with pictures taken on the day of their interview, in which the veterans are seen with the students.

We thank the American Legion's Joseph M. Sesterhenn Post #166, the Glenview History Center, and Glenview South High School for partnering with the Library on this project.

Click on the white arrow to view the slideshow:

Picasa and Your Family Tree

Google Picasa can help genealogists.

Google Picasa Web Albums offers free Face Recognition Software that might help identify unrecognized people in your old family photos.

If you enable the Name Tagging feature, it will help you identify the same face in other photos. Invite your cousins to view and contribute to your collaborative family photo albums.

Genalogical Photos

Do you want to be able to easily share pictures with your new-found cousins?There are many ways to do this.One web site that combines genealogy with family photos is MyHeritage.

MyHeritage is a network of 32 million family members worldwide. It contains more than 350 million profiles, 7 million family Web sites and 50 million photos. People upload more than 2.5 million family photos to MyHeritage every month.

MyHeritage lets you share family photos from mobile devices or by email, which allows you to capture family moments and share them as they happen. You can tag your photos, or put them into a variety of slideshow formats, making it quick and easy for you to share your images in a beautiful way.

Flickr Commons

Flickr Commons can be of great help to genealogists. You may find pictures here of your ancestors and relatives, the house or town where they lived, and more.

Your participation in The Commons on Flickr will make these photos valuable to everyone, everywhere.

Describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.

The Commons was launched on January 16, 2008, when the pilot project was launched in partnership with The Library of Congress. Both Flickr and the Library were overwhelmed by the positive response.

The program has two main objectives:

1--To increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and

2--To provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge. (Then watch what happens when they do!)

Sign in to The Commons at Flickr using your Yahoo email address and password.