Blog

It’s Earth Day, and that means this is a great time to think about how you can reduce your impact on the planet – after you’re gone.  That’s right, one day you will be somebodies ancestor and you may want to think about the footprint you leave behind.   Worldwide, more than 56,000,000 people pass away each year. Traditional burial and cremation practices can have significant negative environmental impact, while approximately 1,500,000 million tons of reinforced concrete is buried in the U.S. each year in the construction of burial vaults. So, of Cremation or Burial which is the greener option? Let’s face it, most people don’t base the decision on whether to get cremated or buried on environmental concerns; but in honor of Earth Day I thought it might be worth broaching the topic. Ther ...

This last Sunday was Palm Sunday in the Christian tradition and all over the world some Christians lit candles and attended special worship services associated with Easter’s Holy Week, while Jews began their physical and spiritual preparations for Passover — making the matzah (flat, unleavened bread), shopping for bitter herbs and celebratory wine.   Like Jews in the celebration of Passover, Christians vary in their observance of various Easter-related customs. While most Christian denominations celebrate Easter Sunday as a way of honoring Jesus’ victory over death and sin, they don’t all celebrate the other elements of Holy Week.   In some Christian churches, for example, Palm Sunday services acknowledge Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem by carrying ...

On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, everyone is Irish, if just for a day. I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at St. Patrick’s Day, perhaps the only holiday where regular folks lie about their national ancestry.  Genealogy is about digging deeper to expose the folklore and myths of our origin stories and find the truth.  So come with me as we dig deeper into the myths and truths of St. Patrick’s Day.   According to the US Census, there are about 34 million Americans listing their heritage as primarily or partially Irish. That number, by the way, is seven times larger than the approximately 5 million actual Irish folks living in Ireland.   Here in America, New York has the largest Irish population; 12.9 percent of its residents claim Irish ancestry, which com ...

My Roots Foundation seeks to discover and honor the accomplishments of those who have come before us.  In celebration of black history month, we would like to invite you to consider the accomplishments of Glenwood Burden Sr., who in 1961 became the first African American to attend Goldsboro High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina. You can see the full video production on Glenwood Burden at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTxeaCH60w&feature=youtu.be Years ago we helped a client, Gail Burden with her family history discovery.  At this time, and in honor of Black History Month, we would like to point you to one of Ms. Burden’s siblings with a very inspiring story in honor of Black History Month. Integration was spreading across the nation and the local NAACP had chosen a handful of stu ...

DNA Test Kit   So, you are thinking about using a DNA test kit to further your genealogical research.  Before you swab your cheek, and drop it in the mailbox; there are a few things you might want to consider. One important question to think about is  “Does the HIPAA Privacy Rule protect genetic information?”  According to the Federal Government the short answer is “yes”.  The ‘not so short’ answer is more of a ‘sort of.’   Most people think that genetic data is private. They assume this sensitive information simply sits in a secure database, protected from hackers and misuse. According to a recent article; The Privacy Delusions Of Genetic Testing “Customers are wrong to think their information is safely locked away. It’s not; it’s getting sold far and wid ...