It has been 68 years since the U.S. Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, marking the entrance of the United States into World War II - a war that ultimately claimed more than 64 million lives.

If any of your relatives are still alive to tell their stories of WWII, be sure to talk to them now before it is too late. It was a long, painful time in world history and each person who lived through it has a very different story to tell. My grandfathers, both deceased, fought in WWII, as did my father-in-law (also deceased). One of my grandmothers told me her stories of living through WWII as a teenager in France, while the other has stories to tell about the rationing and war efforts in the United States. My mother-in-law has terrible stories to tell of living through the war in Germany and her escape from a concentration camp. Quite a lot of different perspectives on a war, that surprisingly aren't all that different from one another.

Take time over the upcoming holiday season to try and capture your relatives WWII memories - both the ones who served in the military, and the civilians who lived through the terrible times at home. Keep their memories alive so future generations don't forget!

With so many digitized copies of original source documents now available online, I've found one of the quickest ways to get my reticent relatives interested in discussing their family history is to take them online and start showing them what can be found. A 1930 census record of my paternal grandmother's family that I showed her online last year prompted at least an hour of stories about her siblings, the house they lived in, the neighbors, her Dad's job, and more!

Census records are obviously a good place to start with relatives, as they often end up fascinated besides themselves to see their name, or the names of their parents or grandparents listed along with details on occupation, children, etc. FamilySearch Record Search is a great place to check first as they have a large collection of free census images for viewing. Passenger lists are also popular for families with recent immigrant ancestors. Subscription Web site Ancestry.com offers an extensive collection of U.S. and U.K. passenger lists, as well as census records for the U.S., Canada and the U.K. A free trial offers you a chance to check out their offerings if you don't already have a subscription.

Newspaper articles, including marriage notices, obituaries, and a wealth of human interest stories, from school contests to trial proceedings, can also be a good way to spark the interest of people who "aren't into genealogy." You may want to do some initial searching for articles before you sit down in front of the computer with your relative, because full-text searching of newspapers can be a bit tedious at times and cause them to lose interest quickly... Many relatives find death certificates interesting as well...and they often include burial information so you can plan a road trip to the cemetery.

Whenever I discover ancestors living in a new city or town, one of the first things I like to do is dig up a few photos and some history of the place. While pictures of cities, towns and other places are easy to find on popular photo-sharing sites such as Flickr, the first place I usually turn to is Panoramio, a Web site that links millions of photos with the exact geographical location where they were taken. These photos are all uploaded by users, and I find it especially useful for locating photos of places near my chosen location which might not have otherwise turned up with a search for the city or town. Some of the uploaded photographs are even historical, such as this 1955 photo of my mother-in-law's home city of Berlichingen, Germany. You can also explore cemeteries in Panoramio, although the ones most often photographed are the famous ones like London's Highgate cemetery. I'll have to do something about uploading photos of some of those rural North Carolina cornfield cemeteries they are missing!

Photos from Panoramio can also be accessed from Google Maps. After typing in a place name in Google Maps, you will see a "More info about" button near the bottom of the left-hand navigation window. Click on the "more info about" button and you will be presented with a display of photos and videos that are geotagged for your chosen location, with images populated from the Panoramio Web site and videos from YouTube.

Happy exploring! Or maybe consider uploading a few photos of your own to help the next researcher to come along...

RootsMagic family tree software is one that I often recommend to readers, for its ease of use and wealth of features. Some, however, were reluctant to invest time trying out the limited trial version, or not yet ready to invest in such a comprehensive program. Thus, I was thrilled when Bruce Buzbee announced today that he has created a free version of his desktop genealogy software, titled RootsMagic Essentials.

RootsMagic Essentials contains many of the core features found in the full Roots Magic 4 version, including the ability to add unlimited people and events, pictures and media management, powerful merging and clean-up tools, dozens of reports and charts, integration with FamilySearch, the SourceWizard to format your source citations for you, and the ability to share data with other people and software programs.

The free version of RootsMagic Essentials can be downloaded directly at www.rootsmagic.com. If you're currently using another genealogy software package, RootsMagic and RootsMagic Essentials import directly from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins and Legacy Family Tree. It can also import family trees in GEDCOM format.

Earlier this year my father-in-law passed away at the age of 90 - the last living World War II veteran in my family. Luckily for us, we have many of his stories recorded, but for many veterans the stories and memories of their war experiences have died with them. Take time this week from your family history research to learn more about the veterans in your family tree - interview a living veteran, track down a military record, or read online accounts of other military veterans who served with your ancestors. Thank you for honoring our veterans.

If you're like many of us, you (or your parents or grandparents) probably have stacks of old slide carousels loaded up with family memories. Unfortunately, the precious images on those slides are deteriorating with each passing day. Here are several options for converting those pictures to digital format.

Once you've scanned your old family photos or slides into digital format, try these tips for digitally cleaning up those tears, stains, creases and faded images.

As a bonus for your hard work, the digital pictures you've created from those old family slides can now be used in all sorts of creative ways to make great holiday gifts for your family members -- from ornaments to calendars!

Footnote announced today that it will digitize and place online all publicly available U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 to the most current public census from 1930. The 1860 and 1930 censuses are already online, with digitization of 1900, 1910 and 1920 just getting underway.

So why use the census on Footnote when it is available elsewhere on the Web? Footnote does do it a little differently - offering interactive census pages for each individual which allow users to add comments and insight about that person, upload and attach scanned photos and documents, and identify relatives found in the census by clicking the I'm Related button. Check out the 1930 interactive census page for Jimmy Stewart to see available features.

Footnote also offers an alternative to other subscription genealogy sites, such as Ancestry.com, which offer the complete U.S. census. The census records also make a very nice addition for people subscribing to Footnote for the many other records they offer. Of course, FamilySearch Record Search offers many U.S. Federal Census online for free (along with census records for many states and other countries). They currently have indexes and images for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1900, plus indexes only for 1880 and 1920.

Check out the latest interactive census additions at Footnote, and sign up to receive an email when images are added for your chosen states.

The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records are a great online resource for U.S. genealogists researching ancestors in the thirty federal or public land states. As far as online land records go, however, the GLO is not the only game in town. Many U.S. counties, especially in the eastern part of the country, have started putting their historical deed records online. You might be surprised what you can find!

Most of you probably know that I have a lot of North Carolina ancestors. As a result, I've been very happy with the recent trend of North Carolina counties to place their deeds records online in digitized format. Read more...

Hereditary surnames, the family names passed down from father to son, came much later to England than many other parts of Europe. It was not until almost the 16th century before surnames were in common, everyday use by almost everyone. What's interesting is that the most common surnames in use in England today (according to ONS data) are not all of English origin. Their are several Arabic names in the top 100, along with name of more expected Welsh or Scottish origins.

Is your name one of the most common in use in England today? Do you know what it may mean or where it derives from? While it is fairly difficult to say with a certainty how your specific family name evolved without tracing it all the way back to its progenitor, you can at least learn a little about the common meaning and origin applied to your surname in this list of Top 100 Common English Surnames & Their Meanings.

In the United States, this Thursday marks the end of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a month set aside to celebrate the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Ironically, Hispanic Heritage Month doesn't follow the calendar, instead running from September 15 - October 15 each year, because September 15th marks the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively. Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, held on October 12, also falls within the 30-day period.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 14 percent of the population (an estimated 42.7 million Americans) claim Hispanic origin, making it the nation's largest ethnic minority. Are you one of them? Celebrate your Hispanic heritage by learning more about your roots:

Tracing Your Hispanic Family Tree

Spanish Surname Meanings & Origins

Tracing Your Family Tree in Mexico

Hispanic Heritage National Parks

Notable Hispanic Women