I’m blessed to have oodles of oft-used and much loved heritage recipes and cookbooks from the ladies in my family who came before me. But I’m not the only Lisa who does. I’ve invited my good friend Lisa Alzo to visit with you here on the Genealogy Gems blog.
Lisa is the author of Baba’s Kitchen and a well known genealogy lecturer.
She’s has also presented genealogy sessions at the Genealogy Gems booth at national genealogy conferences.
In today’s post, Lisa Alzo is generously sharing one of her mouthwatering holiday heritage recipes, and, most importantly, the loving genealogical story behind it.
So preheat your oven, pour a glass of eggnog, and spend some time with Lisa and her Aunties:
Reflecting on Family Traditions
“I’ve been thinking a lot about family traditions lately. Perhaps it’s because I have been spending the majority of this year sorting and organizing family treasures, or maybe it is the approaching holiday season that makes me feel sentimental about food, family, and special times.
Each December, one of my favorite traditions is baking Christmas cut-out cookies, using this recipe that my dad’s sister Betty (“Auntie B” as I called her) passed down to me. I have many fond memories of baking these cookies with another “Auntie”—my father’s other sister (Sister Camilla) when she came home for the holidays to Pittsburgh from the convent where she lived in Texas.
Lisa Alzo and Sr. Camilla Alzo making Christmas cookies in December 1972.
To be honest, my mom would do most of the hard work of preparing the dough and rolling it out into large ovals on the wood cutting board dusted with flour. Auntie and I were in charge of the frosting and decorating, which in my opinion, was the best part. After all, Santa needed a big plate of these cookies when he dropped by.
The recipe has always been a favorite in our family because it is not just a plain sugar cookie, but has a hint of almond that provides extra special flavor.
For me, the holiday season is not complete until I make these cookies. So, every year I play holiday music, make the dough, use the Santa-in-his-cap cookie cutter (I still have the original), and sprinkle the red crystallized sugar on top of the powdered sugar icing on the freshly baked cookies. Inevitably, my mind always wanders back to the wonderful Christmas memories my aunts created with me.
Traditions are a part of our family history. This tradition stayed with me so much that I included the recipe for Auntie B’s Cookies in my book, Baba’s Kitchen: Slovak & Rusyn Family Recipes & Traditions. I’m pleased to share it with Genealogy Gems readers.” – Lisa A. Alzo
Thank you, Lisa! I’m definitely going to whip up a batch of these and I’m sure I can entice Davy and Joey to do the sugar sprinkling! Happy baking and Merry Christmas.
The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episodes
2011 – 2012 Season Seven
Episode 121
Part 2 of Lisa’s interview with Steve Luxenberg, author of the book Annie’s Ghosts
Episode 122
Find out what a Forensic Genealogist Does. Plus suggestions for “Family Medical History” reading, and how to find “Bonus Content” for Steve Luxenberg’s book Annie’s Ghosts
Episode 123
Taking Genealogy out into the Community. Plus Part 3 of Your Life in 5 Minutes, New Records, and a new name for Grandma.
Episode 124
A new way to search with Google, Photo Mystery, Newspapers with Tom Kemp, plus Part 4 of Your Life in 5 Minutes
Episode 125
Genealogist Shirley Gage Hodges will share her genealogical wisdom with you as well as talk about her status as “perennial student.”
Episode 126
The latest news from RootsTech 2012, my video interview with Nick Barratt, and an in depth look at Find A Grave with the website’s creator, Jim Tipton.
Episode 127
Interview with Historian Nick Barratt of the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series in the UK
Episode 128
WDYTYA Live recap, a Family History Mystery Solved, and an interview with Chris van der Kuyl CEO of brightsolid
Episode 129 Genealogy Gems Book Club: Running Away to Home with author Jennifer Wilson
Episode 131
Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Census Schedules, and Ancestry acquires Archives.com.
Episode 132
Bonnets and Hats with Maureen Taylor, and the Genealogy Widower
Episode 133
Lisa interviews Henry Louis Gates about his TV series Finding Your Roots.
Episode 134 A Blast from the Past! This episode includes Episodes 1 and 2!
Episode 135
Interview with Linda Chavez of Finding Your Roots
Episode 136
Life After iGoogle! And the brand new Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems website has launched!
Episode 137
Food and Family History with author Gena Philibert Ortega Part 1. Includes a companion video, AND Bonus Video of Gena and Lisa in the kitchen cooking up a Blast from the Past!
Episode 138
Food and Family History with author Gena Philibert Ortega Part 2.
Episode 139
Head back to (family history) school! Lisa announces her brand new book Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse
Episode 140
Blast from the Past: Episodes 3 and 4. eBay Alerts, Family History Displays, Irish Genealogy
On January 28, 2015 Google announced that Google Earth PRO is now available for FREE! Not just a free trial. Google is allowing everyone to get a free key to Google Earth Pro!
In the past the software fee was hundreds of dollars. But now you can get Google Earth Pro for free and gain the ability to do things like “measure 3D buildings, print high-resolution images for presentations or reports, and record HD movies” inside Google Earth.To get your free key to Google Earth Pro sign up here. After submitting the form, you will be emailed the free license key. Copy the license key from the email, then click the link provided to download Google Earth Pro app for PC and Mac.
Everything I’ve taught you about using Google Earth still applies, but now you have more tools than ever!
Since I announced this in the last Genealogy Gems Newsletter, I’ve received several questions. Here’s what you need to know about Google Earth Pro:
From Sheri: “I did get it to finally work…..instead of my phone number running together….I added the dashes between the numbers and then it went through. FYI….in case you hear an issue from others.”
Thanks for the tip Sheri. Most likely the problem you were running into after the big announcement that Google Earth Pro went free was the sheer amount of traffic the site received. Googlers swarmed the site, and any people found it took several attempts to get a successful download. As time passes, it should get quicker and easier to download.
From Kathy: “I downloaded the Google Earth Pro BUT now I have regular and Pro on my computer and all the spots marked in regular seemed to have transferred to Pro—Question—should I now uninstall the regular version?”
Answer: That decision is really up to you. I’ve decided to keep both for a while, but only do work from this point forward in Pro. If in a few months everything is still running smoothly, then I will probably delete the old free version just to free up disk space on my computer. For now, it certainly doesn’t hurt to leave it there.
The good news is that both programs appear to pull from the same files on your computer. This means that when you create a file in Pro, you will also see it in your Places panel in the free version.
Question from Dea: “I downloaded Google Earth Pro on my main computer. I now want to use the same license key for my laptop and android, as I signed up for 2 to 5 users. I assumed that I could use the same license key. When I tried to sign up on my laptop it said I already was a user, but do not know how I can access it from my laptop. Help!”
Answer: Although the sign up page asks how many users will be using the program, my understanding is that each download key is for one device. I would guess that the user question is about how many people might be using the application on that device. (Unfortunately the website isn’t clear on this point.) I’m basing this on the fact that when it was a paid version, you had to purchase a license key for each device.
As with the original free version of Google Earth, each device you download Google Earth to has it’s own unique Places Panel. In other words, files you create on your desktop computer don’t show up on your laptop. This is because the files are stored on that particular device and not on the Cloud (for privacy reasons).
So the bottom line is that to get another license key for another device you will need to use a different email. If you only have one email address, you could create a second free email in Gmail just to have an email you can use.
Dea’s Reply: “Thank you for such a prompt reply. I am sure there must be more than one of you. I do not know how you get so much accomplished….saw you at Midwest Roots in Indianapolis and, again, at a webinar for our Genealogy Society in Terre Haute, IN. You are an excellent speaker, teacher as well as entertaining.”
Lisa: Now I’m blushing!!
Answers to more questions:
Do you really need Google Earth Pro? Probably not, because Pro was created originally for businesses. However there are some pretty cool extras that you get by going Pro:
Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies, up to 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution. (Sweet!)
High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4,800 x 3,200 pixel resolution. (The free version max: 1,000 pixels.)
Spreadsheet import: Ingest up to 2,500 addresses at a time, assigning place marks and style templates in bulk. (My geeky side is getting giddy!)
Exclusive pro data layers: Demographics, parcels, and traffic count.
Advanced measurements: Measure parking lots and land developments with polygon area measure, or determine affected radius with circle measure.
Resources:
Want to learn more about using Google Earth specifically for genealogy? Check out this free video class.
And there are several chapters on using Google Earth for genealogy in my brand new book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox Second Edition (2015). You can pick up as a special bundle here with my 2 disc DVD set Google Earth for Genealogy.
Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. In the works: soon RootsMagic will be fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you’ll be able to sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site.
Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. Learn more at http://www.backblaze.com/.
INTERVIEW: DAVE OBEE
Continuing our celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday!
Dave Obee is an internationally-renowned Canadian journalist, historian and genealogist. Dave is a columnist for Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy Today (formerly Family Chronicle). Dave has also written about family history for Canada’s History and Your Family Tree in the United Kingdom.
Read a companion blog post on English parish records, with several image examples and links to the resources Kate Eakman recommends.
Legacy Tree Genealogists provides expert genealogy research service that works with your research goals, budget and schedule. The Legacy Tree Discovery package offers 3.5 hours of preliminary analysis and research recommendations: a great choice if you’ve hit a brick wall in your research and could use some expert guidance.
Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don’t need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You’ve got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at Animoto.com.