• Video
  • Mar11

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    I’ve just finished watching the documentary One Million Dubliners, which at it’s simplest is a study of Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery, the “home” to 1.5 million people of all sorts, including people like Michael Collins and Daniel O’Connell.

    One Million Dubliners PosterWhile I am sure some may find the delivery of the film to be slow, I found the the pace of the film and the multifaceted approach to telling the story were very well done, incorporating both historical and everyday figures, the creation and restoration of the cemetery itself, and perhaps most importantly the inclusion of the more mundane aspects of running a cemetery and the thoughts of those involved.

    While this latter information may fare only slightly higher on many peoples’ lists than watching paint dry, the people interviewed in these daily roles of the cemetery each show a different angle of the goings-on and in sum provide an almost surprisingly philosophical treatise on the process of death and the power surrounding one’s final resting place.

    However, the thread that holds this film together, without question, are the stories and perspectives of the cemetery’s historian Shane MacThomáis. His love of the historical subject matter and of Glasnevin itself is apparent. His wonderful interactions leading cemetery tours for both young people and adults truly draw us in with humor and pathos.

    As you are reading this review on my genealogy blog, it is highly likely at least part of many a day’s thoughts are taken up by the interaction of history, family, lost stories, loss itself, and the task of trying to find meaning in their conjunction. If so, I highly suggest your taking the time to find and watch this film.

    A word of warning: I began watching without any prior knowledge of the film beyond a recent mention online. When soon after I found it available on Hoopla Digital (streaming offered free via my local library), I thought that I had to give it a shot.

    As I got to the end of the film, I truly was more than a bit M. Night Shyamalan-ed. I do not want to say more.

    I would suggest if you know no more than I did, Do Not research the cemetery and names I mention here – just watch. You can always go online later and learn more.

  • Nov7

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    OK, This ain’t genealogy, but fun for anyone who ever went to a drive-in movie in the 50s through the 70s. They were still using this at the Drive-in we went to in upstate New York until the 1980s!

    What seemingly silly things from our childhoods do we need to record for our children and theirs?

    No hot dogs were harmed in the filming of this advermercial. But they were delicious.

  • Jul24

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    No time to post much lately, and have one long post about a research project that I want to write up properly, so…. enjoy this Discover Ireland advertisement in the meantime.

  • Apr3

    1 Comment

    I was very excited to watch the Rootstech live streams this year and especially loved the ones from the Story@Home track.

    Rootstech 2013
    As a followup to my last post Story, Structure, Napkins, and Lasagna I thought I would post this quick entry pointing to the video streams from two excellent presentations –

    Syd Liberman’s talk during the Thursday Keynote (See his own site here.)

    Kim Weitkamp’s Tell It Again (Visit her site here.)

    I was going to embed the video for both in this post, but couldn’t stop them from autoplaying so have linked to the Rootstech site instead.

    Also, there does not seem to be a direct link to Syd Liberman’s place in the Keynote lineup, so you’ll have to scroll it to some time after the 35 minute mark in the video to catch him. (I had quite a bit of trouble getting that player to get to the exact location I wanted, but the effort was worth it.)

  • May22

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    Another non-genealogy post, but after watching this with my son, I have to heartily recommend the stunningly animated movie – The Secret of Kells to all.

    There are bits that are quite scary so I would recommend it for children around 9 and up, depending of course on their scare factor. My son is almost 9 and although he loves all types of crazy and spooky stories, when he seems to feel a real connection to the characters the scariness within the story affects him much more. While he loved this film, I could feel him getting near the edge and moving closer to me during the Viking attack scenes and those with Ouroboros.

    But, the film is wonderful and all of the scenes fit into the story perfectly. View the trailer below, or you can watch the entire film over at Hulu for free.

    For an added bonus, head on over to Comixology.com for a free Prequel comic that you can download to your PC, iPhone, iPad or Android devices. There is also a full 112 page complete story for sale there for $4.99 that I’m eyeing for my son’s birthday. (I hope he’ll let me read it.)