I guess most of us think about family around the holidays. Whether it’s the childhood memories or the new memories we create as we get older. It’s not too late to think about a genealogy related holiday gift for your wife or family. (Not that the microwave oven or duvet cover wouldn’t be appreciated. I’ve probably mentioned lulu.com before. They are a self publishing site. In fact, it’s almost scary how easy it really is to get your writings in print there.

Now, I’m assuming that you’ve already got your family history at least fairly well written or a pretty easy to compile amount ready. They accept pdf format (in fact that’s the preferred method mainly because it will keep it’s formatting better than most others.) They do accept other file formats as well though including doc, rtf, wps, ps, jpg, gif, png. Don’t limit yourself just to the idea of a written manuscript on the history of your family. Think about the idea of producing a photo book or calendar. Maybe you have a great collection of photos of your families ancestors along with their homesteads.

If you’re a more seasoned citizen with quite a few stories from your youth about your family, or if you can get the permission of one of the elders of the family try recording some of those great stories and putting them on cds so that everybody in the family can enjoy them long after the storyteller has gone. Many times I’ve thought about putting together “letters to my children/grandchildren” in this kind of a format and there’s no time like the present to start something like this.

Another idea is a real family portrait. I think I recall last Christmas that I had found several sites online that would do a painting based on a photo. That would be a truly memorable heirloom of a gift. Not that the bathroom scale is a bad idea in practical use, but…..

Too often Genealogy is dry and lifeless, it’s so much more vibrant when we are able to put pictures and stories and figure out other ways to relate to it. That can be the basis for a great gift.

So, if you’re not already thinking about Christmas gifts for your family, you probably will be soon. So, how can you work your genealogy research into gifts for the family? Let’s face it you spend many, many hours each year with your research, maybe there’s a good way you can package and give some of that to other members of your family. After all, I suspect they’re part of the reason you’re spending all this time researching, so you can tell them about their ancestors. Well, here’s an idea… cafepress.com let’s you put pictures on all sorts of products, coffee mugs, shirts, etc. One good idea might be a family picture from many years ago on a coffee cup… but there might be some better gift ideas if you dig through their site. In order to do that, you will need to sign up for an account, upload your photo(s) and choose the products you want to place it on.

Then you can purchase the products you’ve put the pictures on for presents.

Another idea is to compile some of your research as a book. Many genealogy programs do GREAT report printouts. Find a good narrative report that would be appropriate and prepare it as a REAL book through either lulu.com or cafepress.com. If you like, include a disclaimer in the front of your book that this is a work in progress. Stamp it with the current year and suggest that in several years you might release a revised and expanded edition. Both lulu.com and cafepress give some NICE book presentation options (and you will likely get a bit of a discount if you order several.)

Each state seems to have their own terms for breaking down the state into geographical regions. South Carolina is no different. As you research you may come across these terms. Upstate, Piedmont and Midlands and Low Country (or lowcountry). It really is fairly straightforward. The upstate is the corner of South Carolina up near North Carolina and Tennessee. The piedmont is merely an extension of the plateau that runs south from Virginia through North and South Carolinas that separates the Appalachian Mountains from the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The midlands are that same central area of South Carolina, but may not cover all the counties that border with NC or further to the Southwest with Georgia.

The lowcountry region or Low Country of South Carolina covers all of the coastal counties and coastal plain. This includes the sea islands along the coast of South Carolina.

You may also hear of the Sandhills which are ancient beach dunes that separate the Piedmont from the Coastal Plain. Also, the Blue Ridge Mountains extend down from North Carolina into the northeast corner of South Carolina.

Both North and South Carolina can claim states with a diverse range of geographies and climates. No wonder our ancestors came here!

You have probably noticed the many google rss feeds that I use on this site. It’s really easy to let google do a lot of your “news reading” for you these days and you don’t have to have anything fancier than an email address and a web browser to set things up. First off, visit news.google.com and type in a search that you want to keep informed about. (South Carolina Genealogy for instance). Then when the result comes up…

Browse down the lefthand side of the page until you see an envelope icon and the words “News Alerts” – click this icon here you can modify your search, choose news, blogs, the web or other areas of searching and the frequency you want to get emails with new stories. If you choose a very popular topic and “as it happens” you may wind up with a lot of messages. Enter your email address and then click “Create Alert”

Now you’re all set, you’ll get an email anytime there’s a new news story about the search that you specified. You can also get fancy and combine this with a web search to get an email when a favorite site has changed or added information on a particular topic.