The Perfect Tree

I am the baby of three children; both of my parents are still alive, though, none of my blood grandparents are. I will be the first to tell you that my upbringing wasn't exactly the traditional sort. My dad was always working. My mom basically raised us alone. My sister on the other end of the country. When we didn't have sitters, we were at the family business, running around causing trouble. Let's be honest, not exactly the childhood dream. But I had a great childhood. Sometimes my family can drive me utterly insane! That doesn't mean that I stop loving them.

So this got me thinking.  Why is my family a little coo-coo for coconuts? Maybe someone or something can give me a little insight on where we came from. This is where I started.

 

1. Start your family tree

Your immediate family often holds the key to starting your family history research. Record the memories of your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins as you start exploring your family tree online. Ask each relative about specific individuals and gather details surrounding their lives including nicknames, places they lived, vital information (including birth, marriage, and death dates), occupations, and other important clues. Enjoy a free questionnaire below to get started with your family history.
 

2. Search your home for scrapbooks

Family scrapbooks often yield important clues for family history research. Examine your home for vital records (birth certificates), school records, family bibles, diaries and letters, old photographs, and memorabilia boxes that tell stories about your family.
 

3. Start with the family history basics

Use your initial research for your first searches and then analyze your results to achieve a personal success strategy. Following the family history golden rules will help you become a more efficient researcher and hopefully lead to greater rewards in your family search.
 

4.Start your online family tree

Build your online family tree to organize your results. Keeping your research and records organized is important as you continue to find new details related to your family. Enter important information, including names, dates, and places to build a solid foundation as you continue exploring your family history.
 

5. Start with a family story

When building your family tree, identify a potential story about family that you are interested to begin exploring. Aim to uncover both newspaper archives and records relating to your family’s stories in your research. Stories can include military service (such as exploring World War I military service records), occupational stories (memories of a first paycheck or time spent as a Merchant Marine), educational memories (attending high school or college) or a family legend (being descendant from a prominent individual in American history or confirm stories of a renegade ancestor with detailed criminal records).
 

6. Join the family history conversation

Join a network of family hisorians both experienced and new on social networking resources (like findmypast's Facebook and Twitter) to make new connections and gain insight on how to expand your family history resources.

Staying tuned to the findmypast.com blog for latest record updates and podcasts to help expand your family history search. Read genealogy articles and watch YouTube videos related to family history to start building your knowledge base of records and methods for tracing your family tree.
 

7. Search the U.S. census

The U.S. Federal census is the largest resource for family history and is a solid starting place for examining your family tree. Starting with the newly released 1940 US census, trace parents and grandparents through the census, recording their names, ages, birthplaces, immigration details, occupations, and residences as your build out your family tree.
 

8. Search one family story at a time

Focus on one or two families at a time to help organize your research and increase your productivity. Select one or two families that interest you, rather than trying to tackle your entire family tree at once. Spend time gathering information and documenting your family in small pieces as you work towards the larger goal of filling out your family tree.
 

9. Gather materials from relatives

Your relatives will likely have important resources in their homes that can assist your search. Family bibles, letters, certifications, and other important materials might be only a phone call away. Some family members might have old genealogical information from other relatives who have also worked on the family history that can help jump start your search.
 

10. Find a Family History Society

Connect with other genealogists and family historians through a local genealogical society or family history event in your area. You can also post questions to online forums for others to answer when you need help with your research. Attending local classes about family tree research, family history records, and how to avoid brick walls is an important step to finding answers for beginners and advanced genealogists alike.

 

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Some people go a little further into their search where they actually do a DNA search for siblings, parents, and other relatives. Genetics is a complex field with lots of details to keep straight. But when you get a handle on some key terms and concepts, including the structure of DNA and the laws of inheritance, you can start putting the pieces together for a better understanding of genetics.

TIME FOR A SCIENCE LESSON!

 

Glossary
Alleles: Alternative forms of a gene

Autosomal chromosome: A non-sex chromosome

Chromosome: A linear or circular strand composed of DNA that contains genes

Diploid: An organism with two copies of each chromosome

DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid; the molecule that carries genetic information

Dominant: A phenotype or allele that completely masks the presence of the other, recessive allele in the heterozygote

Gene: The fundamental unit of heredity; a specific section of DNA within a chromosome

Genotype: The genetic makeup of an individual; the allele(s) possessed at a given locus

Heterozygote: An individual with two different alleles of a given gene or locus

Homozygote: An individual with two identical alleles of a given gene or locus

Locus: A specific location on a chromosome

Nucleotides: a compound consisting of a nucleoside linked to a phosphate group. Nucleotides form the basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA.

Phenotype: The physical characteristics of an individual

Recessive: A phenotype or allele exhibited only when homozygous

 



 

DNA is made up of long chains of nucleotides. To make a complete DNA molecule, single nucleotides join to make chains that come together as matched pairs and form long double strands. Each nucleotide is comprised of the following:

• A five-sided (pentose) sugar called deoxyribose
• A phosphate
• One of four nitrogen-rich bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine

Nucleotides are joined together by phosphodiester bonds. Nucleotide chains are antiparallel and complementary






So all of that science jargon aside, there are sites that are available to help you in your search. The very popular Ancestry.com is a common one you'll see on TV commercials and internet ads. Ancestry does have the availability to search with vital information such as names, dates, locations, etc, but also has the option to search via DNA, military records, and even obituaries.

They even have an ancestry blog that posts relatively often that they describe as,

"Here you will find informational, and sometimes fun, posts from the folks behind the scenes here at Ancestry. We hope you’ll notice just how passionate we are about family history and about the products we’re building to help connect families over distance and time."

You can even send a subscription to someone as a gift! Honestly, I understand why it is the most popular of all the sites out there to check your Genealogy.

Another very viable site that can be used for this sort of searching is Omni Trace. Their site openly states their testimonial success stories right on the home page! It has the availabilities to search for a unknown family members to long lost friends to background checks to missing person searches. 

"OmniTrace–The People Search Experts–was founded in 2001 specifically to locate missing people and to reunite biological families separated by adoption. Today, in our 14th year in business, OmniTrace has grown into a renowned private investigative agency (Lic. #2200304). We now also serve the banking, insurance, clinical trial and legal communities.

We are still best known for our adoption related searches, estimating we’ve reunited more birth parents and adoptees than all other search companies combined. In addition, we have located tens of thousands of old friends, beneficiaries, deadbeat dads, child support skips, heirs, classmates, lost loves, military buddies, and many others.

If you are interested in our adoption services we will provide an evaluation to determine if you have enough information to start a search. While we cannot guarantee we will locate your birth mother or adopted child, we will provide a professional investigation and every client will receive a detailed report of our results. A licensed investigator will review the results with you, should you have questions."

 

Omni Trace also has an available blog that discusses personal experiences with clients to different routes of search and availabilities that they offer.

here's a short list of other available sites to check out if you're serious about finding...someone!

My Heritage
Family Tree Now
Family Tree Builder
Been Verified

 



I grew up with my immediate family. I spent enough time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. I was fortunate enough to get that treasure.  But not everyone is as lucky as I am.

Did You Know?  Each year in the United States, about 51,000 American children are placed for adoption. In addition, about 6,500 foreign children are adopted by Americans, for a total of a little under 58,000 children adopted per year. There are no national statistics on how many people are waiting to adopt, but experts estimate it is somewhere between one and two million couples.

Knowing this, is why many of these sites got started. Sadly, that number is increasing every year. Think about that number. That is just the children. Multiply that number by three to include the parents and even a few more times for any other relatives in search. That is the amount of people that would benefit from sites like these.  I applaud the people that began this venture and everything that they stand for while they bring people together.









 

Listen To What You Can't Obviously Hear

What is your subconscious trying to tell you?

One good way to find out is through your dreams. When we sleep, our subconscious doesn’t need to battle with our conscious mind. Our emotional side is not challenged by our logic, so it’s easy for our subconscious to break through barriers. But it isn’t always easy to understand what it is trying to tell us. The subconscious relays messages in the form of dream symbols, or sometimes even bizarre dreams in which we are participants or observers. Think of a dream as a private movie screening of a film in which you play the leading role, or perhaps just sit in the front row of the theater.

Dreaming is one of the best ways for the subconscious mind to get your attention. Many people get psychic impressions from their dreams. Others may only dream when being forewarned about a situation. Some people think they never dream. They do, but probably can’t remember. In some dreams, our friends and family members may make an appearance. Even loved ones who have passed on can show up from time to time to say hello.

There are many distinctly different types of dreams.  

Prophetic Dreams are those that give us a glimpse into the future. These dreams you will want to keep record of and attempt to interpret.

Recurring Dreams are ones you have repeatedly. The same theme or series of events is always played out in this type of dream. If you experience a recurring dream, there’s probably a psychological or emotional reason for it. Your subconscious mind is telling you that there is an issue, fear, or worry you need to examine within yourself.

Precognitive Dreams: These are psychic dreams that can foretell the future. Make special note if you have a dream that feels precognitive. Even if the details are a little off, they may be close enough to alert you to upcoming events.

Warning Dreams: These dreams alert us to possible danger or problems ahead. These dreams help us by giving us prior knowledge so we can be prepared or a crisis our even stop it from happening.

Factual Dreams: We have lots of these! They don’t last long, and we’re more apt to get bits and pieces of information than tangible knowledge. However, they can be very helpful. For example, you could dream of being interviewed for a new position or of talking with a friend about something that is actually happening in your life.

Inspiration Dreams: If you are going through a personal crisis, perhaps having a difficult time at work or worrying about something, an inspiration dream offers a solution. It can give you insight to handle a situation. These dreams leave you with good feelings when you wake up.

Visitation Dreams: Sometimes, deceased loved ones want to visit us, and the best way for them to connect with us is through our dreams. When we’re asleep, our subconscious is open to receiving messages from the other side. But how do you know if you are just dreaming of a departed family member or experiencing an actual visitation?

"First, it’s important to know that your deceased loved one, in Spirit, now operates entirely on the energy of Divine Light. In Heaven. The Realm of Spirit. The Great Oneness. In that space. This space, is light, buoyant, and glowing with energy. This energy is what they use to connect with you on many levels. As your loved ones are no longer in physical body, they must use purely energy to connect with you.

This can be the energy of touch and sensation, the energy of thought and ideas, the energy of emotions, the energy of images. Basically sending energy from themselves to you."

-amanda linette meder

Very Commonly, you will attempt to understand your dreams through "dream research". There are a lot of common symbols that mean more common things, but it is very clear that any information you read through, dream symbols may mean different things for different people. That's why its entirely up to your subconscious. But here are some of the most common symbols that people dream about.


1. Being Chased
2. Water
3. Vehicles
4. People
5. School or Classroom
6. Paralysis
7. Death
8. Flying
9. Falling
10. Nudity
11. Baby
12. Food
13. House
14. Sex


Read More on each symbol here!


Did You Know? Not everyone dreams in color!

While it's believed that the majority of us dream in color, its estimated that roughly one person in eight is limited to black and white dreamscapes. But this wasn't always the case. Research on dreams from the first half of the 20th century suggests that the vast majority of people actually used to dream in black and white. But beginning in the sixties, the balance began tipping in the direction of color dreaming. What accounted for this shift? According to Dundee University's Eva Murzyn, the advent of Technicolor (i.e., color movies and television):

"It suggests there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed."

But here's the real kicker: according to Murzyn, if one looks even further back in history — back before even black and white television came on the scene — all evidence suggests we were dreaming in color.

Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be interpreted by people with these associated spiritual powers.

In modern times, various schools of psychology and neurobiology have offered theories about the meaning and purpose of dreams. Most people currently appear to interpret dream content according to the Freudian theory of dreams in countries, as found by a study conducted in the United States, India, and South Korea.

People appear to believe dreams are particularly meaningful: they assign more meaning to dreams than to similar waking thoughts. For example, people report they would be more likely to cancel a trip they had planned that involved a plane flight if they dreamt of their plane crashing the night before than if they thought of their plane crashing the night before or the Department of Homeland Security issued a Federal warning.

However, people do not attribute equal importance to all dreams. People appear to use motivated reasoning when interpreting their dreams. They are more likely to view dreams confirming their waking beliefs and desires to be more meaningful than dreams that contradict their waking beliefs and desires.

Dream analysis is a therapeutic technique best known for its use in psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as “the royal road” to the unconscious and developed dream analysis, or dream interpretation, as a way of tapping into this unconscious material.

A lot of people associate dream interpretation with modern psychological analysis, but by the time the likes of Jung and Freud got around to it, the practice of dream interpretation had been in full swing for thousands of years.

Some of the first evidence of dream interpretation dates all the way back to the to the 3rd millennium BC, to the ancient cultures of the Mesopotamian. These early civilizations were not only among the first to develop writing, they also practiced dream interpretation regularly, collecting the accounts of dreams (especially those of royal figures) into dream books, complete with interpretations.Most theoretical models use the basic tenets of dream analysis in the same way: A person in therapy relates a dream to the therapist, discussion and processing follows, and new information is gleaned from the dream. At the conclusion of the process, the therapist can help the person apply the new information in a useful way. Although these similarities exist, each therapy model applies dream analysis in different ways.

Psychoanalysis: In psychoanalytic theory, dreams represent wish fulfillment, unconscious desires, and conflicts. Dreams contain both manifest and latent content. Manifest content includes information from the dream as the dreamer remembers it. Latent content represents the repressed, symbolic meaning embedded within the dream. During dream analysis, the person in therapy shares the manifest content of the dream with the therapist. After specific symbols are pulled from the manifest content, the therapist utilizes free association to facilitate the exploration of repressed material.

Then there's Jungian Analysis, which is similar to Freud's psychoanalysis in that dreams are probed for unconscious material and symbols are explored for hidden meaning. However, in Jungian dream analysis, the dreamer is more crucial in unlocking the dream's message. Additionally, dreams are seen as attempts to express and create rather than efforts to repress and disguise, as in Freud's theory. Jungian dream analysis is based on Jung's belief that unless the interpretation resonates with the dreamer, the interpretation is not helpful.

In addition to the free association method described above, Jungian analysis also utilizes a technique called amplification. Amplification is based on the assumption that humanity shares a collective unconscious, or a set of inherited universal experiences. In this technique, collectively agreed-upon associations are explored. For example, if the person in therapy dreams about a dog, the therapist will encourage the exploration and research of universally understood information about dogs (dogs are affectionate, man's best friend, dogs in mythology, and so on). Amplification goes beyond using just the individual's associations; it explores the collective understanding of the symbol to help the individual find meaning in the dream.

History of Dream Analysis in Therapy

Dreams have intrigued the human race for thousands of years. In ancient times, the Babylonians and Egyptians believed dreams were prophetic and held heavenly meaning. Aristotle interpreted dreams as psychological phenomena and viewed them as the life of one's soul while asleep. In the middle of the 19th century, the first scientifically-based dream research took place, but it was not until Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 that dream analysis widely developed. His was the first established theory that incorporated dreams within the context of the helping relationship. Jung adapted Freud's theory, proposing that dreams do not signify repressed unconscious drives but represent expressions of creativity aimed at resolution. Since then, other therapy models like Gestalt therapy, art therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy have used dream analysis in one fashion or another.

Did you know? Everyone tends to dream about the same things!

In a study conducted in 2004, scientists from the Sleep Laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany administered a "Typical Dream Questionnaire" to 444 participants in an effort to characterize the variability of dream content across their test population. The test subjects were asked to identify how many of 55 "typical dream themes" (like being chased, having your teeth fall out, flying, running in place, etc) they had experienced. According to the researchers:

The findings indicated that most of the 55 dream themes occurred at least once in most of the participants' lifetimes. In addition, the correlation coefficients for the rank order of the themes were very high; that is, the relative frequencies were stable.

Oh yeah! And yes, pretty much everyone dreams about sex. A study conducted in 2007 by psychologist Antonio Zadra concluded that, for men and women alike, sexual dreams account for roughly 8% of all reported dreams. According to Zadra: Sexual intercourse was the most common type of sexual content, followed by sexual propositions, kissing, and fantasies... masturbation accounted for approximately 6% of both male and female sexual dreams and an orgasm was experienced in approximately 4% of all sexual dreams.

Dream Catcher Meaning: Web, Feathers & Beads

All parts of the authentic Native American dream catcher have meaning tied to the natural world. The shape of the dream catcher is a circle because it represents the circle of life and how forces like the sun and moon travel each day and night across the sky. The dream catcher web catches the bad dreams during the night and dispose of them when the day comes. As for the good dreams, the feathers act as a fluffy, pillow-like ladder that allows them to gently descend upon the sleeping person undisturbed. There is some contention when it comes to the meaning of the beads that often decorate the dream catcher. According to some American Indians, the beads symbolize the spider—the web weaver itself. Others believe the beads symbolize the good dreams that could not pass through the web, immortalized in the form of sacred charms.

Dream Catcher Meaning Today: Authentic Symbol or Cultural Appropriation?

Though dream catchers are quite prolific, finding real authentic dream catchers is not that easy. Real handmade dream catchers are usually small in size and feature sacred charms like feathers and beads. Many dream catchers for sale today, however, are much more American than Native American, often oversized and made of cheap plastic materials. Many Native Americans still consider the dream catcher to be a symbol of unity and identification among the many Indian Nations and First Nations cultures. Still, many other Native Americans have come to see dream catchers as an symbol of cultural appropriation, over-commercialized and offensively misappropriated and misused by non-Natives.

What have we learned here? We've learned that dreams, no matter how small or insignificant, will most always mean something to you. We've learned that different cultures could lead you to different interpretations of your dreams. And we've also learned that your subconscious is what is really in control of your nightly images. If you're ready to dive into more of the meanings, I encourage you to visit one of these sites below that elaborate a little bit more on some of the typical dream "symbols".

http://www.dreamlookup.com/

https://www.dreamdictionary.org/

https://www.psychologistworld.com/dreams/dictionary/

http://dreamstop.com/what-do-dreams-mean/

So tell me about your dreams. What happened? What does it mean? Share in the comments below!