* Do you know your family health history? Family Health Portrait Can help!

Documenting your family health history can often be forgotten when researching your family. Knowing and having access your family health history can be vital for doctors to properly evaluate your health needs when faced with sickness or an emergency situation.

A new FREE online tool from the Surgeon General, My Family Health Portrait, can help you record your family health history. You fill out the easy to use form and it creates a pedigree family health history chart. When you are finished you can download the chart and save it to your computer and share it with family members or your doctor! Family Health Portrait is completely private and secure, the data you enter is not saved on their site and no government record is created. (HHS Privacy Policy Notice) If you already have a Microsoft Health Vault account you can copy your records to your Family Health Portrait and then save the new information added to your Family Health Portrait can be saved to your Microsoft Health Vault Account.

The holidays are a perfect time to talk with your family about genealogy and family roots, why not take this opportunity to start the conversation about your family health history. I know I will be talking with my family about our family health history. Cheers to a happy and healthy holiday season!

* organizing and sharing genealogy news: exploring GenealoGee

The genealogy community is growing with new technology and our influence has a far greater reach than ever before. This global audience demands technology to organize and deliver new information as quickly as possible. It's challenging for me to stay on task when overloaded with updates from twitter, newsletters, feeds, wall posts, emails, comments, new blogs - I just can't help myself! There are so many interesting things going on! A free membership with GenealoGee has potential to streamline the information overload! GenealoGee facilitates bookmarking, exchanging, and promotion of relevant genealogy news through member submitted content from all over the web.

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* investigating draft registration cards

I love finding a matching draft registration record, these little forms cover a broad range of information giving you a great snapshot of your ancestor. The forms vary slightly by draft registration period but all contain basic vital information, address, signature, a contact person (usually a spouse or parent), occupation, employer, physical descriptions (height, weight, complexion, hair and eye color), and any physical ailments or disabilities. You never know what you'll find.

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* family history, why don't the records just match up!?

Vital records contain key pieces of information, it's just a matter of finding them. It's easy to get excited and confident when you find a new record for an ancestor, but it's so important to check out all the details before inducting new records as fact. But even after everything checks out what to do when you find a new record completely blowing your theory?? My recent experience with conflicting and confusing information

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