Five We Like: Another week of family history goodies

 

There’s a lot of good family history information available on the Internet. Here are five places we’ve enjoyed visiting recently:

Mapping the God of Sperm. For 15 years, Kirk Maxey of Northville, Michigan, dutifully reported to a Michigan clinic twice a week where he became of the country’s most prolific sperm donors. It is estimated that the 51-year-old Maxey is the biological father of nearly 400 children. Since record-keeping and privacy issues have changed greatly since his first donation in 1980, Maxey has some concerns, like what if two of his offspring were to marry and have children of their own?

The heirloom that they fear. What does a Jewish family do with a 1937 copy of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” which may have been taken from a German soldier killed by a family member in World War II? That’s a question faced by the Mandell family in Massachusetts.

A brief, personal history of hair. Melinda has worn her hair long, she’s worn it short. She’s been a strawberry blonde, she’s been a redhead. In this post she shares the long and short history of her hair. It’s a perspective on a person’s history I hadn’t considered before. Now I will. How about you?

News Flash! Not Everyone Wants A Life Story Told. Personal historian Dan Curtis is a very practical sort. His blog posts always offer a perfectly reasoned point of view about his chosen vocation, including this one. Here Dan points out that some people are simply not interested in sharing their personal history, no matter what.

Recommended Reading. Have you been watching the new show “Who Do You Think You Are?” on NBC on Friday nights? Many viewers of this program may want to track down their own family history. In this article on the Untangled Family Roots blog, Amy Crooks shares some tips that will help the genealogically curious.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- is available at Amazon.

 

Comments

[Terri]

Thanks for some interesting places to visit today!

[Dan Curtis]

Thanks for the mention, Larry!