LivingGenealogy is now on Twitter.  Follow developments as we work to improve the site at https://twitter.com/LivingGenealogy.

In August, my wife and I spent a couple weeks in Connecticut and took some time one Saturday to go to Norwich where many of my ancestors lived upon immigrating to the United States.  Among my ancestors who lived in Norwich are the following family names: Hutchins (also Huchens and Huchins), Elderken, Knight, Bauckus, Waterman, Leffingwell, Rogers and Lee.  In the cemetary just outside of Norwich (located in Norwichtown), we found gravestones for almost all of these ancestors with the exception of the Knights (anyone know where they might be?).  I took photos of dozens of the graves, so if anyone is looking for more info on these names in Norwich, feel free to get in touch. 

It was interesting to discover that the Arnold family (as in Benedict Arnold) was also buried in the Norwichtown cemetary, but when their son betrayed the young United States during the Revolutionary War, locals exhumed his family's bodies.

Norwich the town was beautiful.  It is well deserving of its nick-name, the Rose of New England.  I have created a "Place Page" for Norwich and posted several pictures of the town and cemetary.  You can find it by browsing Places or doing a search for Norwich in the Search bar.

LivingGenealogy is a revolution in free online genealogy.  It has four key features, all of which are free:

Ancestor Pages: Users can create a page (using the simple template) for each of their ancestors. Then they (and their relatives) can add photos, memories, journal excerpts, etc., collaboratively authoring their ancestors' biographies and creating a more complete picture of who their ancestors were.  In addition to the more complete view we get when more people are involved in telling their ancestors' stories, this information is easy to share and universally available online.

Place Pages: Just like Ancestor Pages, users can create pages dedicated to geographic locales - their ancestors' hometowns, countries, regions, etc. Users who have been there or live there now contribute their photos, information, travel tips, genealogy research ideas, etc. to the page.  Users who haven't had the chance to visit their ancestral hometowns can go on a sort of "virtual tour" through the information and photos others upload.  Those who are planning a trip to these places can also connect with users who have been there and get tips and insights before they go.

User Groups: Anyone can create and join user groups.  These can be public (like everybody with ancestors from Liverpool) or private (like secure family-specific groups where family members can collaborate on research and keep up to speed on each other's progress).  User groups are a great way to connect with others and leverage each other's resources and insights to create synergies and avoid duplication of efforts.  

Have you ever wanted to go visit your ancestral homelands...stroll through the far away villages from whence your ancestors came?  Have you had the opportunity of visiting and would love to share your photos and memories with your relatives who haven't yet been able to make the trip?

Well now you can, with Place Pages, a revolution in online genealogy! 

Here's how it works: 

These pages work the same way as "Ancestor Pages" in that once a page is created for any geographic locale, anybody else can add photos, histories, memories, etc.

This is a great way for those who haven't been able to travel to their ancestral hometowns to go on a virtual tour.  Users can upload photos past and present, travel tips, tips for researching genealogy in these towns and countries, etc. - a great way to get to know where your roots are from!

For an example of a "Place Page" click the sample Place Page in the toolbar to the left.  To create your own "Place Page" click on "Place Page" under "Create" on the navigation bar at your left.

You can also browse places that have already been created using the "Browse Place Pages" link at the top left of the navigation bar.

As always, we'd love to hear what you think and any suggestions you have for improving the site.  Thanks again for your feedback and for helping to build the largest genealogy community on the Internet!

As a generation, we are priveleged to enjoy an abundance of technologies that enrich our lives.  We have cellular phones, computers, microwaves, digital cameras, the Internet and many, many more technological miracles that even our grandparents could never have imagined.

As such, our generation is uniquely positioned to use some of this technology to preserve and share our heritage.  With the click of a mouse and a few stikes of a keyboard, we can record some of our insights into our ancestors' lives, preserving them for future generations to get to know them too and sharing their lives instantly with relatives near and far anywhere in the world.

This week, I am offering a challenge, to myself and to any other LivingGenealogists interested in accepting:

Create a "Person Page" for each of our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.

This generation (our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents) is so fascinating!  They have lived through world wars, the rise and fall of nations, the invention of the automobile and air travel, etc., etc., etc.  And because they're only a generation away, it is quite easy for us to obtain photos, stories and memories from their lives. 

Creating a "Person Page" for each of them - in which we record some of the most interesting aspects of their unique lives, and the photos that tell a thousand words - will allow these ancetors' stories to live on, touching the lives of their descendents for generations to come and introducing us to our own heritage.

Do you accept the challenge?

Can you create a page for each of your grandparents or great-grandparents?  It's easy! 

Welcome to LivingGenealogy.com and welcome to my first blog. 

I'll use this blog as we move through our beta stage to introduce you to LivingGenealogy and to keep users up to speed on new developments.

What is LivingGenealogy?
LivingGenealogy is a new kind of genealogy web site for a new kind of Internet. The old Internet was all about looking things up, reading and maybe looking at pictures.  The new Internet is about collaborating, creating and connecting.  It's about bringing people together to do more than we could ever do alone.  And where is that more important than in genealogy? 

At LivingGenealogy, you can collaborate with other users: share information, share pictures, share stories. You can create and join user groups to share information, tips and experiences. 

You can create: create pages for your ancestors and make them come to life through memories, stories and photos. And you can contribute your research, memories and photos to pages created by other users about your ancestors. 

You can connect: Did somebody post new information about one of your ancestors?  Just click "contact author" and get in touch with them and ask where they got it. Do you have a treasured photo of your great aunt that other relatives would like to cherish too? Upload it to that ancestor's page or post it in your family's user group.

Together we can collaboratively write, share, update and preserve the world's greatest family history!