12 Christmas Gifts for a Genealogist

Here's a list of a dozen gifts your favourite genealogist might like for Christmas. Maybe you could even sneak one or two for yourself!

1. Ancestry.com subscription
2. DNA Kit 10% off AncestryDNA Nov 29-Dec 14 in U.S.A. or Ancestry DNA in Canada
3. Echo Smart Pen by Live Scribe for recording Family Stories and Memories. I love my SmartPen which I bought on Amazon. I use it to record my 93 year old auntie's stories of her childhood, then I plug it into my laptop and the digital record transfers. Using the pen while auntie speaks, I make jot notes in the special notebooks. Then I can play the recorded stories by touching any word in the notebook. Very cool!
4. Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription
5. Rootstech 2017 Registration
6. A loupe for magnification so you can scrutinize old photos and documents for clues.
7. A Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, Nook, or other e-reader so you can purchase genealogy books and read them in airports, waiting rooms, on the beach or pretty much anywhere
8. A subscription to the Genealogy Magazine of your choice. I like Family Tree Magazine, but the one you drool over could be very different.
9. A beautiful journal for writing your own memoirs. I love Iona Handcrafted Books and have asked my hubby to buy me another one this Christmas as I'm on my last one. Tip: If the checkout won't accept a non-USA order, just email or phone as they do accept international orders.
10. A Shutterfly gift certificate  I love Shutterfly for creating family photo books or calendars. It's also great for simply getting copies of your family photos so you can share them with family members
11. Acid Free Storage boxes for your treasured family photos and original documents
12. A copy of the Genealogical Mystery Novel "Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery" by Lorine McGinnis Schulze, available in Paperback or E-Book. In this debut novel, middle-aged Janie Riley is off to Salt Lake City to research her ancestors. Little does she know that murder and mysteries await her!

A Genealogy Christmas Wish List: 5 Items You Can't Live Without

Believe it or not, Christmas is only 25 days away! That's right. It's time to not only start buying that perfect gift for loved ones but also make your own wish list of genealogy items you'd like to have. Olive Tree Genealogy has created a nice start to a list of 5 items you know you can't live without. 

1. DNA KITS - what's not to love about being able to find cousin connections and learn about your far-back ancestry?

IN AMERICA
30% off AncestryDNA in America AncestryDNA is on sale in the USA at the lowest price of the year, for $69 - a 30% discount! The offer will be live from November 26 9pm PST to November 30 9pm PST.

IN CANADA
Canadians must purchase their kits from Ancestry.ca. $30 OFF AncestryDNA in Canada
AncestryDNA in Canada is on sale at the lowest price of the year. Normally $149 the sale is for $119 - a $30 discount! The offer will be live from November 26 9pm PST to November 30 9pm PST.

IN UNITED KINGDOM
Buy your AncestryDNA kit at the lowest price of the year in the UK: £69 with a 30% discount! The offer will be live from 27 November 12:01am GMT to 30 November 11:59pm GMT.30% off AncestryDNA in the UK

2. PORTABLE SCANNER

Personally I love my Flip-Pal Scanner.  But there are other options!

* TaoTronics® Handheld Mobile Portable Document scanner
* Avision IS15+ Portable Scanner for Photos & Cards 

3. DOCUMENT FEEDER SCANNER 

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac   my personal favorite! I use mine daily. It makes life so much easier - it's fast and reliable and scans to email, Dropbox, Evernote, your computer.... whatever you choose. You can scan in jpg or pdf. 

4. GENEALOGY BOOKS. We all love genealogy books so why not put a few on your Christmas list? I recommend you pop over to Amazon and check out the books by the following authors:
* Books by Lorine McGinnis Schulze


* Books by Thomas MacEntee

5. SUBSCRIPTION TO GENEALOGY WEBSITE

There are many great genealogy sites you can subscribe to. My favorite is Ancestry.com as it has allowed me to dig back many generations on my ancestors in America, Canada and England.

Find Out What Your DNA Says About You - Specials at 23andMe

I'm definitely taking advantage of this special and buying a few DNA kits for Christmas presents for family members! 

We'd like to have hubs' mom and dad tested and I'd like to convince my 102 year old Uncle on my mother's side to do a little spitting! 

In any case I plan on buying 4 kits for Christmas. The more family members I can get to test, the more accurate results are and the more i can find out about our family heritage.

Here's the link to get your DNA kits at 23andMe.com

A Genealogy Christmas Wish List

Last year I published a Christmas post called All I Want For Christmas: A Genealogist's Baker's Dozen Wish List
 
This year I'm revisiting some of my ideas from last Christmas, even though I did get many of the items on my list. My readers might be interested in the list for themselves!

Print it and leave it lying around for your spouse or children to find. Pass it on to friends and family so they know what you'd like.

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

1. Ancestry.com World Subscription (or any other genealogy subscription-based site you like)

2. Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to take to Archives, Libraries and on field trips. Read my first review from November 2010 at Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner, Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

3. RootsTech Registration. Ask your loved one to register you for RootsTech 2013 coming up March 21-23, 2013

4. An original newspaper from Historic Newspapers UK. See my earlier blog post about this (they also have USA newspapers!) at Original Historic Newspapers Make Great Gifts!

5. Evernote Moleskine notebook. I don't have one and am pretty anxious to try it out! Apparently you write in the notebook and with a click of your smartphone camera, can transfer your notes to Evernote. See The New Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine

6. DNA Test Kit from Family Tree DNA (or any other DNA Testing company you prefer)
 
7.  Echo Smart Pen by Live Scribe for recording Family Stories and Memories. I love my SmartPen. I use it to record my 89 year old auntie's stories of her childhood, then I plug it into my laptop and the digital record transfers. Using the pen while auntie speaks, I make jot notes in the special notebooks. Then I can play the recorded stories by touching any word in the notebook. Very cool!

8. A Kindle Fire, Nook or other e-reader so you can purchase genealogy books and read them in airports, waiting rooms, on the beach or pretty much anywhere

My Iona Journal

9.  A subscription to the Genealogy Magazine of your choice. I'd like Family Tree Magazine, but the one you drool over could be very different

10. Jawbone JAMBOX This tiny powerful speaker allows you to connect via bluetooth to any other bluetooth enabled device (laptop, computer, iPhone, iPad etc) and play your favourite podcasts or listen to any audio with much better quality sound. I have one and I love it.

11. A beautiful journal for writing your own memoirs. I love Iona Handcrafted Books and have asked my hubby to buy me another one this Christmas as I'm on my last one. Tip: If the checkout won't accept a non-USA order, just email or phone as they do accept international orders.

12.  A Shutterfly gift certificate  I love Shutterfly for creating family photo books or calendars. It's also great for simply getting copies of your family photos so you can share them with family members

13. And in blatant self-promotion, how about asking for one of the genealogy and history books I have written and published?

And there you have it - my Genealogy Wish List for this Christmas. 

Flip-Pal Mobile Christmas Specials until December 9, 2012:

Christmas Specials until December 9, 2012: Free Shipping on all orders of $150 or more in the USA and Canada! (Applies to standard ground shipping only.)

The following specials are valid from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time on their respective sale dates.

December 3: Save $30 on the Genealogy Bundle!
Genealogists and Family Historians—here’s a bundle just for you! This bundle includes the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, a Deluxe Flip-Pal mobile scanner Carry Case, a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit, and an Eneloop AA 4-Pack with an AC Battery Charger.
(Regular Price: $223.96, Sale Price: $193.96)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner with 89 year old Auntie

December 4: Save $55 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner with Digital Creativity Suite 3.0 DVD Rechargeable Bundle!
This bundle includes the Flip-Pal mobile scanner with Digital Creativity Suite 3.0 DVD, a Deluxe Flip-Pal mobile scanner Carry Case and an Eneloop AA 4 Pack with an AC Battery Charger.
(Regular Price: $269.97, Sale Price: $214.97)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

December 5: Save $40 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner with Creative Suite Craft Edition DVD and a Deluxe Carry Case Bundle!
(Regular price $229.98, Sale price $189.98)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner with Sketch Kit

December 6: Save $25 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner Rechargeable Bundle!
This bundle includes the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, a Deluxe Flip-Pal mobile scanner Carry Case and an Eneloop AA 4-Pack with an AC Battery Charger.
(Regular Price: $209.97, Sale Price: $184.97)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

December 7: Save $40 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner “Big” Bundle
This bundle includes the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, a Deluxe Flip-Pal mobile scanner Carry Case, a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit, a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Cleaning Cloth, an Eneloop AA 4-Pack with an AC Battery Charger and a Flip-Pal Window Protector Sheets 3-pack.
(Regular Price: $233.94, Sale Price: $193.94)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner & WW1 Photo Albums

December 8: Save $20 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner “Pink” Bundle—helping the National Breast Cancer Foundation!
This bundle includes the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, a Pink Deluxe Flip-Pal mobile scanner Carry Case and a special “Pink” Lid Cover.
(Regular Price: $176.99, Sale Price: $156.99)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

December 9: Save $45 on the Flip-Pal mobile scanner with Digital Creativity Suite 3.0 DVD and Deluxe Carry Case Bundle!
(Regular price $239.98, Sale price $194.98)
Click on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for more information and to order.

Christmas Gift Ideas: Outsmart Game For the Family

Recently Olive Tree Genealogy was given a free game called OUTSMART to review.

My husband and I tried it out first and it was a lot of fun. Then we had friends over and the four of us played for several hours! Marketed as a children's game, it definitely appeals to adults too.

Basically you have cards (there are hundreds of them in the game) with questions. We had such questions as "Who are the main characters in Peter Pan?" and "Name the  characters, other than the four main ones, on Seinfield" and "What were the largest grossing movies in 2010" and "What actors have played Batman?" The questions are on varied topics - there were several sports questions and other topics besides sports, movies and t.v. shows.

One question that had us all chuckling was "What are the top 10 New Year's Resolutions" Oh, and a rather easy-sounding one that turned out to be a challenge, was "What are the most-ordered dishes in a Chinese Food Restaurant"

Each question card notes how many correct answers there are.  One player each turn is the reader and that player takes a question card and inserts it into a sleeve. The sleeve reveals only the top half of the card so that only the question is displayed.

A roll of the dice indicates the maxium number of points (correct answers) each player can score.

An hourglass shaped timer starts the round and each player writes down as many answers as they can think of. When time is up, the first player reads one of his/her answers. Anyone else having that same answer crosses it off and cannot score for it if it is one of the correct answers.

Players continue in turn with their answers. Only the first player to say an answer scores IF that answer is correct.

When all players are done giving their responses to the question, the player who read the question takes it out of its sleeve and reads off the correct answers at the bottom of the card.

We surprised ourselves by doing a lot of laughing and slapping of foreheads as correct answers were read. Our ages ranged from 40 to 68 and we loved it!

I am excited to have our grandchildren play this game with us. It's going to be a lot of fun and a good bonding time. So even though this game isn't genealogy-themed I think it's a great one to give as a Christmas gift to your grandchildren or children. We are going to keep ours here for the grandkids to play with us when they visit.






Remember - any bonding fun family time with your children or grandchildren is an opportunity that we genealogists shouldn't ignore. A night of fun playing a game can lead to talk about ancestors or family or family treasures, and that's always a good thing too.

Manufacturer suggests that OutSmart is for ages 8 and up. You can find the game  at  www.outsmartgame.ca   The OutSmart game is  available at Toys R Us in Canada Ltd. and  other distributors for only $19.99 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for trying it out and writing a review. I was not told what to say and was not paid any money. My opinion is entirely my own.