Liv's Tree House

RootsTech is not only where my passion for Family History was kindled but it's also where it blossomed. Attending either online or in person since 2012 has been one of the highlights of every year. I love the energy, the innovation, and the people; you simply can't find the same incredible mix of my two favorite things, innovations in technology and genealogy anywhere else!  That said, I'm excited to announce that I'll be returning to RootsTech again in 2020. As a presenter, since 2017, and an attendee since 2012, I have had some incredible experiences learning and sharing in the passion we all have for family history.  This year I am incredibly excited to be invited to be a RootsTech Ambassador as well.  RootsTech is my favorite event of the year with it's incredible energy and innovative edge on other genealogy conferences, I can't wait to help share that innovation and excitement with more of the world through social media and other avenues. Stay t...

Today I'm going to add to my #CrazyBusyHelps series with some tools provided from Adobe Spark.  I'm going to focus on their use from a family history angle, but certainly there are many other uses. So I've been teaching about using Adobe Spark for Family History for a few years now and I really do love it, so I thought blogging about it was long overdue. Adobe Spark has 3 different projects you can create, posts, pages and videos.  I've used all three for Family History purposes and I'll give you a quick example of each: GRAPHIC Are the easiest and quickest creations you can make, basically think of it as creating a meme, collage or social media post of some kind.  I've used it mostly for making images to go along with my posts on the blog but my friend Jana Greenhaulgh from the Genealogy Kids blog gave me the idea of creating posts for holiday's and other events to share with your family about their ancestors.  There are many ideas out there, but...

If you haven't noticed yet, I LOVE finding out about new technology in general, but finding new apps that make my life easier is the best kind!! SO the tool I bring to you today is Qeepsake ----- Qeepsake is an app my sister introduced me to a few months ago and I immediately fell in love. It was built to be a modern day baby book, but I've found that it can do much more than that.  All you have to do is signup and set up your account to get things rolling. They have a free version or subscription versions.  The free version is totally adequate, but of course I've found myself on the paid plan because some things are just simply worth every penny, this one definitely is!! What problems does it solve? Documenting important events in your kids' lives; Tracking milestones; Capturing the cute things your kids say; Journaling to let your kids know how you feel about them. Asking the question you wouldn't have thought to ask. Providing great oppor...

I haven't joined the blog link up for a while but I really didn't want to miss this one because I LOVE the topic.  Admittedly, I could step up my game when it comes to teaching my own children genealogy skills, but as I got to thinking about the topic I realized that while I haven't ever sat down and tried to work on the family tree with them, I have taught them some valuable skills through regular play. I'm honestly pretty averse to a lot of the family history for kids ideas out there because so many require a lot of front end work just to prepare said activity before you can start doing it with your kids.  Due to my #CrazyBusy life, usually finding an activity like that just ends up NEVER HAPPENING. :)  So . . . over the years I've found some great games for teaching and learning family history alongside my kids, which I love!!  So for this post I'll share 5 of my faves: Roots & Branches : Built for ages 4 and up, Roots & Branches is an awesome way to...

So this little puppy came in the mail today! I was super excited to win the WeGather raffle at RootsTech . I feel like I never win, and I honestly didn't know I entered to win, so winning was a complete surprise.  But--I do not write simply because I won.  I have to report on WeGather because it's awesome, and I love the developer! Stories are the currency of our past, present and future. Without them, we are bankrupt. Since family photos trigger those stories, we should save and share them. --   Rachel LaCour Niesen So I met Rachel at her booth at RootsTech, but I had been following her site for months before that. I absolutely love her, I love her passion, her drive, her mission, and all that her site stands for.  We share our passion for photos and stories and she's got some amazing resources. I've learned some great tips and tricks from following her.  She has great insight into photos and stories and how they can impact who we are and who we can become....

 So I had the coolest experience when I originally created this book about 4 years ago.  I had been really wanting to find a way to get my kids engaged with their family tree, but they were 5 & 3--how . . . . ?? Then came one late night after attending a genealogy conference.  I was struggling to sleep when the words to almost an entire poem just started coming together in my head, totally unsolicited (at least at that moment).  The poem was what I ended up putting together into a book for the kids. The gathering took some time, getting all the grandparents' input and all the photos together, but I used a program called Mixbook , and everything came together pretty slick.  I ordered it and got it delivered in the mail a short time later. When it came, I had a picnic with the kids and gave them the book as a present. They've used it a lot.  Ella has kept it in her church bag and they use it as a quiet book at church---SUCCESS!! BUT--Here I find myself 3 ...