Liv's Tree House

I'm welcoming myself back to the land of the living.  As my previous post series indicated my life is as a standard #CrazyBusy.  But drum roll.................add my 4th pregnancy to that crazy life and I kind of gave up trying to keep up with blogging, I was in survival mode.   However in the interest of a few things, 1) Joining 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks , with Amy Johnson Crow; 2) a renewed enthusiasm for all things social with Family History due to the fast approaching greatest genealogy conference,  RootsTech ; and 3) a desire to start my 21 Day Challenge again; here I am. So first to catch you up, I'm happy to report that we were able to get through all of the crazy first of the year PTA happenings without much of any hitch, I survived my 1st and 2nd trimester of pregnancy (phew), and I somehow survived my first official attempt at coordinating a Family Discovery Day.  We had a whopping 764 attendees for our little town of Payson, Utah, which was almos...

So I haven’t blogged about it yet, but amidst my chaotic summer/fall transition, I was extended a call to serve in the Family History Center here in town.  In the LDS church, we are offered callings to serve in the church, as the church has lay clergy, and thus part of our membership is service in the church.  So, I was ecstatic, or should have been , but due to my over worked , over scheduled , and stressed out life, I didn’t feel a ton of excitement at the time.  I completely switched into SURVIVAL mode, and I think I’m finally starting to surface again.  Big PTA events are behind us now and we just successfully hosted our first big Youth Family History Event at the center, and I’m starting to feel that super excitement that comes with a new calling, especially one that you already have such a passion for. But I must acknowledge the fact that I had awesome fellow volunteers who made the last couple months rewarding amongst all of the chaos, I’m super blessed t...

June's been a crazy month...So I write to catch up after the craziness.  June is always crazy for me on the mom front.  In fact, I haven't had a chance to do family history the whole month, and I'm missing it terribly, BUT FamilySearch is down today and so I blog.  June is always when we completely over schedule our kids, visit the pool far too many hours, and, this year, get all medical procedures done because we've already hit our out-of-pocket max on our health insurance and it's starting over next month. YIKES! I write from my lovely Adirondack chair overlooking a beautiful mountainous lake.  Why from the chair, you ask? Because due to said insurance circumstance I had a last-minute knee surgery last week, and to tie it into family history, I inherited some crappy knees! Needless to say it's left me fairly immobile, and so I write. Some exciting news that is blog worthy amidst the crazy-busy family schedule though...I was able to attend the Sunday BYU Fami...

Scanning or digitizing your family treasure trove can seem to be an incredibly daunting task, but it doesn't have to be.  If you take a few minutes to educate yourself on the basics then you can make an informed decision about the best route for you and your archive. I got going on it myself in 2010.  I admit photos was an obsession before family history entered my radar--I'd say photos, digital scrap-booking, and family movies was what led me to discover my love for genealogy.  So I'm pretty sure I am genetically hard-wired this way.  So with 6 years of experience under my belt and research on the subject I'll give you the basics. First of all, assess what you've got, and what you can and want to digitize.  You'll likely be surprised at the things that you'll find as you start to dig.  Things like photos and documents are easy to scan, but many of us have things like film, tape, & heirlooms that can be a little more tricky to digitize. Next, learn a bi...

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint s (LDS), otherwise known as the Mormon church, and have been my whole life.  I come from a split family where I had the opportunity to learn different ways of life growing up.  My mother and step-father were members of the LDS church and my father and step-mother were non-denominational and Catholic, respectively. As a member of the LDS church, who also grew up in Utah, I was taught the importance of doing Genealogy work my whole life, but still at large I missed the boat on the whole process until recently.  I was living in Virginia in 2011 when my sister decided it would be a good idea to make a life story book of my grandmother's life, to give to my mom for Christmas.  Six months and countless hours later, we presented my mom with my most cherished piece of work in this life; a beautiful and thoroughly researched compilation of my grandmother's life entitled "The Life and Legacy of ...