Why such a huge bargain?

It seems that some people are missing out on plenty of delight and enrichment simply because our offer appears to be too good to be true.

 

A prospective customer (now a customer) emailed us earlier this week to ask us about it. It didn’t make sense. Why is it so cheap? Why is it more than $200 less than the previous edition? What’s wrong with it? Is it a stripped-down edition? Or what?

 

Actually, this is one of those rare examples of when something that sounds too good to be true, really is true.

 

The $20 Family Forest® New World Edition is truly light years ahead of the $249 Family Forest® Leadership Edition, which was already quite a bargain considering all that it could do (like generating thousands of dollars of reasonably priced ancestral history eBooks).

 

The Family Forest® New World Edition contains everything that was in the Family Forest® Leadership Edition, plus much much more.

 

The reason the New World Edition is currently so cheap is simply because we want to create demand for the pricier Family Forest® National Treasure Edition while it is still in development.

 

When people try the introductory tour we expect them to be so blown away with what was there almost three years ago, that they will absolutely have to have the next edition the moment it becomes available.

 

While the New World Edition can still do a great deal that no other ancestral history resource can yet match, and it can provide years of entertainment without upgrading, it is only a sneak peak, a preview, a concept sketch, of the very exciting Family Forest® Hollywood Edition coming soon.

 

In the mean time, the Family Forest® New World Edition is a truly outstanding bargain, and you can do your friends a great favor if you tell about this special offer while it is still available at this incredibly cheap price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Adams on HBO portrayed by relative

Kristine and I have been very absorbed in an excellent HBO edutainment mini-series presentation of “John Adams” by the very captivating historian, author, and Medal of Freedom recipient, David McCullough.

 

Mr. McCullough clearly employs one of the two concepts behind MPC’s trademark A People-Centered Approach to History®, history as seen through the lives of the people who created it. The other concept behind the trademark is that individuals within the Family Forest® can instantly become a central hub, the starting point to spoke out and visually explore family ties generation by generation, very often for many centuries.

 

Family ties are already so extensively networked in the Family Forest® that Paul Giamatti, the Hollywood actor who so engagingly portrays John Adams, is actually lineage-linked to many of the key characters in the mini-series, including John Adams himself.

 

The list also includes Adams’ wife Abigail (Smith) Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many of the other signers of the Declaration of Independence, David McCullough, and the co-executive producer of “John Adams,” Tom Hanks.

 

But far more important than connecting celebrities and famous people to each other through family ties, the Family Forest® is the best digital central source for personally connecting many millions of everyday people to key historical figures and events.

 

While they may not yet be able to start in the Family Forest® with themselves or their children, as can Tom Hanks, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Martin Scorsese, Britney Spears, Barbra Streisand, Lucille Ball, Barack Obama, President Bush, Prince William and Prince Harry, etc., most of those countess millions of everyday people have one or more ancestors within the last few centuries who are already linked-in.

 

It’s one thing to abstractly say “We’re all related.” It’s quite another to visually explore the maps of generation-by-generation family ties in the Family Forest® which connect us personally (according to recorded history) to the historical characters and events we see on HBO and at the movies, in Vanity Fair and other people-centered magazines, and in our children’s text books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl is an ancestral history movie just premiering this weekend. It focuses on Lady Mary Boleyn, the elder sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and the aunt of Queen Elizabeth I.

 

The trailer looked compelling, and I followed up by checking the Family Forest® to see what we have already on Lady Mary Boleyn.

 

She had at least two children, and they are recorded in history as having the surname of Lady Mary’s husband, William Carey, Esq. Some historians disagree about their paternity, and claim their actual father is King Henry VIII. If so, their descendants are the only known descendants of Henry VIII.

A 20-generation descendant view of Lady Mary Boleyn in the Family Forest®shows many of her descendants with common surnames, and they include a sizable number of people who are also descendants of Princess Pocahontas.

Lady Mary also has a number of famous descendants, including John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Prince William and Prince Harry, Hollywood actor Cary Elwes, Sarah Ferguson, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Anne Spencer (Morrow) Lindbergh, Governor Howard Dean, Rep. Mac Thornberry and Internet founder Tim Berners-Lee.

 

Setting the Record Straight

Happy New Year!

 

Isn’t the beginning of a new year always a perfect time for a fresh start? I think so, and I’d like to take this opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about the Family Forest® Project.

 

Does the Family Forest® map out more of your own early ancestral history than you can see anywhere else? Almost certainly.

 

Will the Family Forest® help you find your grandmother? Probably not, there are many free Internet resources for that purpose.

 

Is the Family Forest® intended to be a replacement for, or competitor of, Ancestry.com, Rootsweb, One Great Family, MyHeritage, I-Family, Geni, 23andMe, NEHGS, the Genographics Project, etc.? Absolutely not, but it is the perfect companion resource for each and every one of them.

 

Can the Family Forest® really pull up ancestor charts with more than one million boxes filled in with names of ancestors? Yes, and probably for more than 50,000 individuals, including some who are quite likely to be your own ancestors.

 

Is the Family Forest® just about genealogy? Definitely not. It is a great genealogy resource, built upon a great wealth of knowledge that the experts have recorded over the centuries, but in the Family Forest® genealogy is only the starting portal into the larger and more captivating worlds of entertainment, history, and ancestral travel.

 

Is the Family Forest® the best digital central source for generation-by-generation ancestral pathways leading to and from the 2008 Presidential Election? Yes, absolutely. For proof, just pull up a 30-generation ancestor chart for the new Democratic front-runner Barack Obama. Or try any of his top three competitors, or Bill Richardson, or Mitt Romney, etc.

 

Some of the helpful links on our FAQ page should help clear up any remaining misconceptions about the Family Forest® Project.

 

The Family Forest® has been packed with virtually limitless delight and enrichment, and the stage is now set for you to visually follow your ancestral history curiosity.

 

Thank you for your interest in the Family Forest® Project. Kristine and I wish you and yours a very remarkable and prosperous 2008.

 

FamilyForest.com on NPR

Since I frequently enjoy listening to NPR, I was very surprised to discover today that

Alex Cohen had been talking on NPR  about the highly praised

Family Forest® Project back in October.

 

The story discusses the celebrity family ties of President Bush, and refers to

Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, John Kerry, Brooke Shields, Clint Eastwood,

Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Walt Disney.

 

Maybe what surprised me the most was finding out that the chief family historian

at the genealogy goliath Ancestry.com, Megan Smolenya said she was surprised

to find out that someone had actually found some of these family ties. This shouldn’t

still be a secret in the genealogy community, as we have been posting many of these

and other fascinating ancestral history findings from the Family Forest® for a number

of years at our website and at our blog. 

 

My crystal ball says that before the 2008 Presidential Election most researchers

and international journalists will discover how much fun and how helpful it is to look in

the Family Forest® New World Edition to see the visual illustrations behind

these types of political stories, as well as countless celebrity stories and

general history stories.

 

 

The War, Veterans Day, and Uncle Donald

Ken Burns is a master at utilizing A People-Centered Approach to History® to stimulate people to do good, which is the goal we are also striving to attain with the Family Forest® Project.

After watching his excellent program on PBS called The War , Kristine was motivated to do further research about her Uncle Donald.

 

Like many other young men and women in The War, Lieutenant Donald Hays Spangler was one of those who went off to serve his country, and never returned.

 

Kristine’s Uncle Donald, one of her father’s two brothers, was appointed midshipman at the US Naval Academy on July 8, 1938. After but a very brief naval career, he was killed in action on the USS Atlanta off Savo Island at Iron Bottom Sound, Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands on November 13, 1942.

 

His memory was perpetuated when the USS Spangler (DE-696) was named for him, and Kristine’s paternal grandmother, Myrtle Elizabeth (Blue) Spangler, was the person who christened the ship when it was launched.

 

Lieutenant Donald Hays Spangler’s memory now lives on in several other places on the Internet, as the niece he never knew has discovered, and is hereby passing on to her nieces, nephews, and cousins in this Veterans Day tribute.

 

The King Maker

After a very productive morning of growing the Family Forest®, Kristine and I were aimlessly channel-surfing on our lunch break, until we were captured by a Travel Channel program about some famous castles in England and Scotland. Ever since I discovered that I have ancestors who lived in castles I’ve been captivated by the spellbinding magic of the type of stories and dramatic videography this program was so rich with.

 

Most of the key people in the stories surrounding many of the famous castles (like Warwick and Edinburgh) which were featured in this particular program, are already in the Family Forest® New World Edition and waiting for visual exploration of their multi-century generation-by-generation family ties.

 

The person who I was most curious to check on first was Earl Richard Neville, known to history as “The King Maker.” So I typed king maker into the search window of the Family Forest® and he instantly appeared, along with highlights of his life, including the quote that he was “probably the most potent noble in the whole range of English history.”

 

My curiosity continues with a number of questions. Where did he come from? What is known about his ancestors? Who is he related to? Who are some of his known descendants today?

 

So I started one of the explorations by bringing up a downstream view of a map of his known Family Forest® descendants, for just the first 20 generations. A number of instantly recognizable people quickly appeared, including of course the British Royal Family, as well as several of their spouses.

 

One of his Hollywood actor descendants who caught my eye was Rupert Everett who first came to my attention in “Boston Legal,” and later for his portrayal of King Charles II in “Stage Beauty.” Rupert has also portrayed other real historical figures, such as in “Shakespeare in Love” and in “The Madness of King George,” and he would be an excellent candidate for the actor to portray Earl Richard Neville (one of his own ancestors) whenever a movie is made about The King Maker.

 

At some point I expect Hollywood casting directors to discover what an excellent tool Hollywood the Family Forest® is for quickly discovering which actors and actresses are actually connected through family ties to real characters in historical films or programs that are being planned. I also expect that Hollywood PR directors will soon begin discovering the untapped potential of ancestral marketing.

Debunking 3 Big Myths about Your Genealogy

New and exciting discovery opportunities will open up for most people, probably including you, when these three emotionally-attached strongholds of common knowledge are exposed for the falsehoods they are.

 

Myth #1: Genealogy is all about your last name.

 

In any other field, anything that represents less than 1% of the whole is considered to be next to nothing. Yet in genealogy, where your last name represents less than 1% of your ancestry most people seem to think genealogy is all about their own surname.

 

The truth is, no matter whether your surname is very unusual or quite common, less than 1% of your own ancestors had your last name, and more than 99% of your own ancestors had different last names.

 

So if almost all of your own ancestors had different last names, this means almost all of your own cousins have different last names, and you may share some of the same ancestors with famous Hollywood actors and actresses, like maybe Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. (see Myth #3 below)

 

Myth #2: All of your ancestors came from ……

 

Many people have grown up believing that all of their ancestors came from Ireland, or Italy, or Norway, or Greece, etc. This is simply not true, even if all four of your grandparents came from the same place.

 

The Big Picture of Genealogy shows that over the centuries your grandparents’ ancestors came from many places. No one has ever had ancestors from only one place, everyone has ancestors from many places, and no matter how geographically identified your surname is, this absolutely includes you.

 

Myth #3: You are not related to anyone famous.

 

You are absolutely related to some famous people, and some of your ancestors were very remarkable people. Some of them were there at key turning points in history, and some of your cousins can be seen on TV. 

 

Discover some of them and become inspired!

 

 P.S. Of course I recommend the Family Forest® New World Edition as the best place to beginning your journey of discovery.

Britney Spears’ Jamestown Ancestor and Katharine Hepburn

Following up on Britney Spears’ Jamestown ancestor Richard Pace, I just discovered that we would have been deprived of one of the most loved Hollywood icons if  Richard had not done what he did. 

According to the ancestral history already digitally mapped out in the Family Forest®, Richard Pace is one of the 11^th great-grandfathers of Britney Spears. 

According to recorded history, Edward Spalding or Spaulding of Chelmsford, MA and his family survived the Indian massacre at Jamestown before moving to Massachusetts. 

Also according to the ancestral history already digitally mapped out in the Family Forest®, Edward Spaulding’s son Benjamin was one of Katharine Hepburn’s 6^th great-grandfathers. 

If Richard Pace had not survived his planned assassination and gone on to warn the Jamestown Colony, if Edward Spaulding had not survived the Indian massacre to become the father of Benjamin Spaulding, if one of Katharine Hepburn’s ancestors had never been born, would Katharine have never been born? Or would she have been born as someone else? 

We will never know. But we do know that Oscar-winner Katharine Hepburn portrayed another one of Britney Spears’ ancestors, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in The Lion in Winter. 

 

See a movie clip at TCM from “The Lion in Winter”. 

So one ancestor of Britney Spears was responsible for saving the life on a man who would later become an ancestor of the most Oscar-winning Hollywood actresses of all times, and she would portray one of Britney’s (and also Katharine’s) ancestors. 

If one Indian had not disobeyed his Chief, there would have been no Katharine Hepburn, and maybe no Britney Spears (her 10^th great-grandfather George Pace was born well before the massacre, and may or may not have been at Jamestown at the time). History pivots on small events.

 

 

Ted Danson in Damages

Kristine and I watched Damages and I turned to the Family Forest® to see if there were family ties connecting the two stars, Ted Danson and Glenn Close.

 

As often happens when I go exploring in the Family Forest®, I got sidetracked from the original mission. First I visited the Captain’s Log archives and rediscovered the interesting ancestral story relating to Cheers.

 

I also found that I had not yet done a story I had intended to do about Ted in his role as Lemuel Gulliver in the 1996 movie Gulliver’s Travels.  I wonder if Ted knows that according to recorded history, he is a distant cousin of “Gulliver’s Travels” author Jonathan Swift?

 

Then I went looking for ancestors Ted Danson and Glenn Close may share. One potential common ancestor who caught my eye, probably because of my two recent

Bourne Ultimatum posts was Ted’s ancestor Thomas Bourne who came to Plymouth, MA in 1636 and was “the eldest of the Marshfield settlers.”

 

Glenn Close did not appear as one of Thomas Bourne’s descendants, but a number of other famous historical figures and Hollywood celebrities did show up as cousins of Ted.

 

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a hero in the War of 1812, is a 5^th cousin four times removed. J.P. Morgan is a distant cousin, as are all of the Grosvenors of National Geographic fame.

 

Hollywood celebrity Bourne cousins of Ted Danson include Humphrey Bogart, Christopher Reeve, Richard Gere, and Hugh Heffner.

 

Could Thomas Bourne ever have imagined that four centuries into the future he would have descendants whose names would be recognized internationally?