In honor of the impending holiday honoring Jesus Christ, I’m adding His genealogy below. But even more interesting than His genealogy is the background information on it. Lest you think that is just another genealogy like any other read the amazing facts that surround it.

It was not done with the aid of a computer, and all people in it are real. The number of the words in the biblical genealogy is divisible by 7 exactly, as are the number of letters, vowels and consonants. The number of words beginning with a vowel are also divisible by 7, and we find that all the words beginning with a consonant are also equally divisible by 7 exactly. Amazingly, the number of words that occur more than once are also divisible by 7 exactly. The number of words that occur only in only one form are also divisible by 7 exactly.

What’s more – the number of words that occur in more than one form is also divisible by 7 exactly also. The number of nouns is divisible by 7 and the words that are not nouns are divisible by 7 exactly.

The number of names is divisible by 7 exactly and the number of male names is also divisible by 7 exactly. The number of non-noun names is divisible by 7 and other than formal names, only 7 other kinds of nouns are found in this genealogy. The number of generations in this genealogy is also divisible by 7.

Pretty amazing stuff!

This is a description of the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first eleven chapters of Matthew as recorded in the original Greek language (Courtesy of Chuck Missler – The Bible Codes)

There are two places in the Bible where the genealogy of Jesus can be found. One is Matthew’s gospel (Mat:1:2:16) and Luke’s gospel (Luk 3:23:38). The first traces Jesus lineage through his earthly father’s line and the second through his mother’s lineage.

The reason it is necessary to trace Jesus through his earthly father’s line is because Jesus was called “the son of David” which demonstrates his rights to inherit David’s throne. See 2Sam 7:12:17 for more details on God telling David his kingdom would remain forever through the son would build the temple and 1Chr 22:7-10 where it is revealed the Solomon is the son God is speaking of.

Solomon is mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy, along with other kings that came after him showing the royal line down to Jesus – the adopted son of Joseph. The heir to the kingdom was passed only from father to son, so clearly Matthew’s genealogy is Jesus’ genealogy from his father, Joseph.

Matthew divides Jesus lineage into three divisions. The first runs from Abraham to the reign of King David. The second runs from David’s Kingdome to Babylonian captivity and the third from the release from Babylonian captivity to Jesus himself.

So from Matthew we find:

First Division: From Abraham to David (Matthew 1:2-6)
Abraham
Isaac
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Judah
Perez
Hezron
Ram
Amminadab
Nashon
Salmon
Boaz
Obed
Jesse
David

Second Divsion: From David To Captivity (Matthew 1:6-11)

David
Solomon
Rehoboam
Abiiah
Asa
Jehoshaphat
Joram
Uzziah
Jotham
Ahaz
Hezekiah
Manasseh
Amon
Josiah

Third Division: From Release to Jesus (Matthew 1:12-16)

Jeconiah
Shealtiel
Zerubbabel
Abiud
Eliakim
Azor
Zadok
Achim
Eliud
Eleazar
Matthan
Jacob
Joseph
Jesus Christ

Note: David’s name is repeated because he was living at the end of the first division and when the second division begins. This makes it so that thre are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian Captivity and 14 from the release of Jesus (14 X 3).

It’s a rainy afternoon and you’re with the kids wondering what to do.  Luckily you’ve had a long interest in genealogy because there’s no end to the fun that you can have teaching the kids while you work on  family tree scrapbooking.  And just think about how great it will be to show off the finished product to all your other relatives when you are done!

Family tree scrapbooking is a great way to show off all the hard work and research that you’ve been accumulating.  By putting important pieces of information into a scrapbook you’re protecting them while simultaneously displaying them.  This will give your project a longer life whether it’s getting passed around the coffee table or down thru the generations.

If you’ve had any experience with scrapbooking, then you’ll likely have all the materials on hand.  If not, a quick trip to the craft store will be in order.  There you’ll find all the material that you need to make this a successful project.  Keep in mind when you are picking your book that it should be able to hold a large amount of information, so it should be sturdy.  It’s best to get one that can have pages added to it as you gather more information about your ancestors further back in time – or as your family grows with marriages and children.

Typically, people start with the pictures and documents that are the oldest.  You’ll need to give some thought to the layout of your project.  Collect all the pieces you want to put in it first and make sure you have all the important dates:  birth, marriage, death, military service, etc.

Just like with photo albums or other scrapbooks, you need to start with the pictures or documents that come first and therefore are the oldest.  Next you’ll need to decide if this scrapbook is dedicated to one side of the family – or both.  Will you start with your grandparents or great-grandparents?  It’s usually easiest to start with just one side of the family and make another scrapbook for the other side – especially if you come from a large family.

Create the layout with all the documents that you have for each person and be sure to properly label them all.  The craft store will have plenty of fun things to add to decorate your family tree scrapbook.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of documents just yet.  You can always create a page based upon what you know about a particular person.  Did they ride motorcycles, or fly a plane.  Add decorations with that theme and maybe a picture of them on a bike.  If Aunt Susie was a great cook – add her favorite recipe or a story of her great Thanksgiving feasts.  This is a great time to include the kids and their favorite memories of their relatives to really get them involved.  Let them pick the decorative touches that you add from the craft store.

Dedicate a single page to either an individual or a couple.   If you can’t think of anything for your uncle that moved to another country, now might be a good time to pick up the phone and call your mom and ask for a story or two.  She’ll be glad that you called and excited that her grand-kids are interested in the family history.  Let the kids ask questions too.  They can compare their life experience to their uncles, or even your mom.  Did she go to school in a one room schoolhouse with no indoor plumbing while they go to a very large school on a school bus and use the internet to do their research?  Help your kids get to truly know your family by teaching them to ask the right questions and share their commonalities and their differences.  You can always add the stories themselves to the scrapbook, either handwritten (short and sweet) by the kids or more detailed and typed by older kids.

No matter how you decide to put together your scrapbook, it will be an afternoon for both you and the kids to cherish for years to come and your scrapbook will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Imagine being able to easily manage all your genealogy data in an easy to use family tree software.    Keeping all that data filed and organized can be one of the greatest challenges you will face as a genealogist.  Software for family trees has been created to help keep track of all the information that you collect, keeping it neat and organized.   There are several to choose from, but I’m going to just focus on Family Tree Maker software here

Family Tree Maker (from Ancestry.com) is one of the more popular software packages available and there are a number of reasons for that.  The cost for the 2011 edition is about $40.00 and can be found at:  www.familytreemaker.com.

This software gets great reviews so if you are considering purchasing a software, this is a sound investment.  There are several features that add to the popularity of Family Tree Maker. First – there are many supplemental charts reports and timelines and (naturally) family trees, to help you stay on top of all the information you’ve collected about your family.

Secondly, there is multi-media availability.  What this means is, you can upload your own videos, audio clips and pictures so that your family tree comes to life.  Information collected from other sites online (such as Rootsweb.com) can easily be integrated into this format.  Ancestry.com and this software combine in a powerful way to make the sometimes complex nature of genealogy much easier.

Since these two information tools are fully integrated, you can very easily get nicely printed family trees from Ancestry.com’s online printing service.  This includes beautiful posters and even books.

As you might expect, this software allows you to add detailed information on one specific person, and then build the family tree around them by adding their parents and children.  You’ll want to have all your information collected and ready to enter when you start, so be sure to have on hand birth, marriage and death dates as well as more interesting information such as where they lived or worked.

One nice feature is that when you enter where a person lived, an interactive map will show you where that location is.  This is wonderful if they are from somewhere that you aren’t the least bit familiar with!

And once you have completed your family tree with Family Tree Maker, it is very easy to publish it online and share it with other family members or other genealogists.  You may be surprised at the interest this generates!

All these features are great, but if you are looking for a cheaper alternative that is almost as good, look no further than myheritage.com

This website offers a software that you can download for free called, Family Tree Builder.  It also rates highly, by experienced genealogists.  While it may not quite have all the bells and whistles that Family Tree Maker has, it is an excellent alternative for the budget minded.  Just like its pricier cousin, you can upload your tree to the internet, but as an added bonus, you can tag the people you recognize in photographs, so that they are more easily found by your guests.  Nice!

Genealogy is not as difficult as many people think.  You simply begin your family tree with yourself.  After that, the research on your family tree really just expands outward from yourself.  This may take some time and energy, but the results are very worthwhile because the family tree that comes from your research is something that you can be proud of and share with all your relatives.

This is a journey of discovery, so you will be talking to a lot of your older relatives – as many as you can.  Don’t wait – especially if they are very old.  I regret having lost forever key vital information because some of my family members died before I ever got a chance to speak with them.

Be sure to collect as much information about every person as you can.  This will include, full names, nicknames, dates of birth, death, marriages, maiden names, names of brothers and sisters, children’s names and so.  Even if an elderly relative is unsure – be sure to record whatever they tell you.  It may prove helpful after all.

Check out any documents that family members may have.  The backs of photographs may have names, dates or locations.  Be sure to record all of this in a well-organized notebook.  Look for clues in the photograph themselves.  What year are the cars?  Are they taken at a well-known location such as the Statue of Liberty?  These things may give you a reference point for figuring out when a person immigrated, or moved to a new location within the U.S…

Don’t worry if it is incorrect.  You will be confirming everything anyway with documentation.  It’s your job as a genealogist to verify, verify, verify!

One great way to verify that you have the correct person is to look at sibling groups on the census.  If you find a family with a group of brothers and sisters with the correct names, then this will confirm you have the right person.

After you have exhausted all of your research with living family members, it will be time to expand your research.  Fortunately, the Internet has made it very easy to do this without ever leaving your home!  There are many, many sites dedicated to genealogy, some free, some with monthly fees.

Personally, I like the membership sites.  There are just so many extra features that they offer, that I feel the investment is well worth it!

The supplies needed for genealogy are a bit different than found in other hobbies – and thankfully too!  There is no real need for to put a lot of expense into it.  It can be as simple as pencil and paper to begin with.

When you are just getting started, you will be collecting information from those closest to you – your immediate family.  You may take notes; collect old photos or even complete interviews.  If you decide to interview your relatives you should invest in either a traditional tape recorder or a newer digital recorder.  Be sure to always carry a supply of pencils, pens, paperclips, batteries and sticky notes for labeling.  A good notebook will serve you well during these interviews.  A really nice thing to have is a portable scanner.  This is something I wished I had when visiting a senior relative that had a huge mountain of memorabilia that he had collected over several decades.  I regret missing the opportunity to scan at least some small fraction of all the great stuff he had.

You will soon realize that the information you collect is piling up quickly.  It’s then that you need to develop a good filing system.  Binders with dividers and tabs can be very useful, but do take up a lot of space.  A small, portable accordion file is a great place to start because it is portable, but as you amass larger and larger amounts of information, a computer is a great asset and there are really good software programs that specialize in genealogy to choose from.  These programs typically allow you to scan photographs, documents and sometimes videos into your program attached to the appropriate individual.

The Internet will become a tool that you use to really expand your research into to your family tree.  There you will find all kinds of informational sites, but also free documents to help you in your search.  Charts, different styles of family tree diagrams and record keeping logs are all examples of helpful tools that you can find on the Internet at many of the genealogy sites.  These are extremely helpful in keeping your information straight.

By using the right tools, you can lesson any aggravation and heighten your enjoyment of your new found hobby!

Perhaps you’ve been mulling the idea of creating your family tree, but decided that genealogy was only for experts.  Perhaps you’ve seen very complicated family trees and thought they were just too difficult to complete.  But there are simple examples or formats for building a family tree that will get you up and started in no time.

There are several options for anyone wanting to complete a family tree.  Certainly one of the easiest is to collect all the names and important dates of your relatives and hand them over to a professional to complete.

Several sites exist online that will do this for you.   It is also an option to provide photos to be incorporated into the tree by the printer.  These can make very nice gifts during the holidays, for birthdays or anniversaries.  There is of course a fee to have this done and the cost varies depending upon the complexity and presentation of the family tree.

A much more fun approach (and certainly cheaper) way is to make your own family tree.  It isn’t as difficult as you might imagine.  Just do a quick search online for “free family tree templates” to copy and you will find quite a variety.   One site, www.familytreetemplates.net boasts 50 free examples of family trees.  Some are more elaborate than others so you should be able to find something that suits your tastes.   For a nominal fee ($4.00) you can download one of their templates that is customizable.  If you are uncertain of the order in which to put the names, again – check the websites for completed trees to see how it is done.

Other  examples of family trees can be found at:  www.thetreemaker.com/samples/family-tree-example.html Though these cost a bit more, they are more decorative and colorful than some found elsewhere.  The cost is about $20.00 but varies with the artwork on the tree.

The three examples I found at this site:   http://genealogy.about.com/od/free_charts/ig/genealogy_charts/family_tree.htm are the traditional tree shape, the chart format and a more unique fan shape.  These are all free, but your choices are limited.  However, the nice thing about downloadable charts found on this site is that you can use the computer to enter the information – a nice feature for those of us with poor penmanship!

One more site that I suggest you check out which offers quite a few examples of charts for you to record your family tree on:   http://www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms They also have other worksheets that you will find helpful in your search for your ancestors.

It is definitely worth your while to take some time to check out the variety of formats for your family tree.  After all, it is something that you will enjoy for years to come.

Most people have a good sense of what genealogy is – the study of your past or more specifically –  your family tree.  If you don’t know your past, it’s exciting to dream about some ancestor being a great war hero, or chivalrous knight living in some castle in a far off land.  Talking to your older relatives can only take you so far, to unearth your remote past is going to be a bit of work.  And it can be a bit intimidating if you don’t know how to get started.

Fortunately, these days – thanks to the Internet, information is easier than ever to find.   A great place to start is obviously sites that are dedicated to genealogy.  Some of the best are:  Ancestry.com, Rootsweb.com and MyHeritage.com.  These are all great sites offering a lot of information.  The internet makes it easy to search for marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, immigration records, ship’s logs, census records, parish records, wills, military records, penal records and even old land title information on some sites.

A Google search of your ancestors name can find other sites dedicated to that family name and sometimes you’ll hit a goldmine of information.  Be sure to put quotation marks around the name to get the best search returns.  For example, you would type “John Adams Smith”.  The quotation marks tell Google to search for instances of those words together.  If they are not there, Google will return you all sites with the word John, the word Adams or the word Smith anywhere on the page.  This would give a heck of a lot of pages that are not at all what you are looking for, so always use those quotation marks.

Even with defining your search well you will often find the same name used by many different people.  In my family, I swear they just kept using the same handful of names over several centuries (Robert, Richard and William).  That makes it very confusing trying to figure out who’s who and if they really belong to my family tree.  Even more maddening, is that sometimes they may have been called one name on a birth certificate, but spent their whole life using a nickname.

Knowing the details of your relatives and their sibling groups will help narrow down the list of names so that you put the correct John Smith in your family tree.  It’s a bit like playing a detective.  The more information that you have to put into an Internet search the better your results will be.

Cyndi’s list is another great website.  She has been adding sites to her list of genealogy websites since 1996 and has over 275,000 sites with 180 categories.  Talk about information overload.  That one website could keep you busy for years.

Keep in mind when you search that very old records were handwritten and can be hard to read.  Also the spelling of names changes with time – sometimes because of this bad handwriting, sometimes because of varying levels of literacy.  All of these factors will complicate your work, but it is still a highly rewarding hobby.

Of course you’ll also want to get off the Internet, out of the house and do some travel to expand your search.  Consider trips to government offices, funeral homes, local court houses, churches and graveyards in the areas where you ancestors lived.  It’s a great way to justify a trip to places you may not have otherwise gone.

Remember, all the work that you put into developing your family tree will be enjoyed for generations to come.  Be as careful as you can to pass down accurate information to them.  They’re counting on you!