My sister Christel has never been comfortable using a computer. An experienced pediatric nurse, she works in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital that handles the toughest cases in a five-state region. She can resuscitate a two-pound preemie without breaking a sweat, but she doesn’t know how to use Google. Occasionally she calls […]

Change can be painful, as I was reminded last weekend when an early snowstorm abruptly ended a stretch of lovely fall weather. As a new homeowner, I was surprised to learn that turning on a gas furnace is more complicated than pushing a button. I was so afraid of blowing myself up by tinkering with […]

Kelvin Hulet is principal product manager for MyCanvas (formerly AncestryPress). In this interview, he explains how Ancestry’s online publishing service has evolved — and how you can make the most of it.
Q. AncestryPress was just relaunched under the name MyCanvas. How will the change from AncestryPress to MyCanvas affect current AncestryPress users?
What the user […]

This month I interviewed Marie McFadden, a very talented graphic designer in our Creative Services group, in the hope that she would give up a few trade secrets. When Marie designs a page in AncestryPress, she seems to achieve a magical balance between elegance and simplicity. Her pages are always visually compelling but never kitschy […]

Marie McFadden is an associate art director at Ancestry.com. She designed most of the country backgrounds in AncestryPress, as well as the “Photo Book for Mom” theme. In an interview with Stefanie Condie, Marie offers guidelines for creating a book that will make a lasting impression on your family and friends.
SC: If I’m creating an […]

I recently called my sister Brigitte, an economist at a prestigious university, to ask her advice about my mortgage. A few days later, I was in the room when my sister Heidi called Brigitte to ask whether she should refinance her townhouse. Since I had moved some of my retirement funds into “safe” assets, I […]

Thanks to all of you who offered comments and suggestions in response to my last post. I’d like to answer the two most common questions and then tell you about some recent improvements.
“I’ve created a book in the 8.5×11 inch format, but now I want the larger size. Can I upgrade to the 11×14 inch […]

Last weekend I had the following conversation with my 5-year-old nephew, Alex.
Alex: “Where are you going?”
Me: “To the store.”
Alex: “Why?”
Me: “Because I want to buy some shoes.”
Alex: “Why?”
Me: “Because I’m a girl, and girls like shoes.”
Alex: “But you don’t need any shoes.”
Which, from an objective point of view, was certainly true. I had a whole […]

A couple of years ago, when I was living in New York, I went to Philadelphia to spend the Easter weekend with my sister and her family. The guests at Easter dinner included my brother-in-law’s sister. She brought Napoleon Dynamite lunch boxes for my nieces, who had seen the movie so many times that […]

A few months ago I heard a wonderful essay on NPR. The author was reminiscing about making a lanyard for his mother at summer camp when he was a kid. The essay was addressed to his mother. He said something like, “You gave me thousands of warm meals, 18 years of free housing and clean […]