Evergenes - Making History

How can you not know when your own birthday is?!

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:07:34 +0200

Every year I ask my father ‘what would you like for your birthday’? To which he dismissively responds ‘nothing, it is not actually my birthday’.

My father does not know the correct date he was born on, and neither did his parents. He is approximately 61 years of age, well, according to his passport he is! He was born in a small village in the Punjab, India in 1948 or 1949; know one in our family actually knows. I find this so bizarre that he does not know his birth date, but then I realised that many people of that age and above who were also born in India, do not know the correct day that they were born. They claim that in those days in the villages, no records of births were actually made.

I asked my father for some basic information to help me fill in my family tree profile for my Evergenes account. Unfortunately, he was unable to provide me with his date of birth; grand parent’s names and DOB/DOD etc. I was quite astonished at this. I am unable to trace any of my family history which makes me rather sad as one day in the future I hoped to sit down with my children and show them where they came from and how life has changed so dramatically over the past century or so.

The internet and computers are so fundamental to our lives today. We spend so much time on social networking sites, there is no reason that we can not spend a small amount of time each week building our own profiles and that of our family members on Evergenes, so that we can sit down with our children and grandchildren in the years to come and easily discover who our ancestors were. I am sure that one day in the future our descendents will be grateful that we made it easy for them to trace their ancestry.

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Alzheimer's Awareness Week

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:59:03 +0200

This week is Alzheimer’s Awareness week (5-11 July, 2009). The main aim of this week is to raise public awareness and understanding about dementia, its causes and the impact it has on people. In the UK alone, 700,000 people have a form of dementia and many others are affected by the consequences. Although the exact causes of the disease are not known, the biological processes have been identified. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. There are however, some drug treatments available that can ameliorate the symptoms or slow down the disease progression in some people.
Alzheimer’s disease destroys cells in the brain resulting in symptoms which include memory problems, mood changes and communication problems. Unfortunately, anyone can develop dementia, age being one of the most significant factors. As many as one in eight people over 60 have a form of dementia and as many as one in five over the age of 80.
This makes me think about my parents who have now both turned 60. My mum has recently become increasingly more forgetful. We took her to the doctors and were referred for tests at the hospital. Fortunately, my mum is fine. Apparently, we all begin to lose our memory with age which is completely normal.
Since then I have made an increased effort to spend more time with my parents. I take for granted the fact that they will always be there for me just as they are now. I feel that since I have turned 30 years old, time passes by so quickly. One day, my parents are not going to be here and that thought makes me very sad. I have begun to upload my parent’s profiles and memories onto Evergenes, so that they can see how they have changed over their life time but also in the future I can sit down with my children and tell them all about their grandparents and so on. I think that my parents will like the fact that they shall have a continued on-line presence in this world and will never be forgotten.

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Armed Forces Day - 27th June 2009

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:08:33 +0200

Today, Armed Forces Day previously known as Veterans Day has been celebrated by many across the United Kingdom. This was an opportunity for the nation to show our support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: including the currently serving troops to Service families and from veterans to recruits.

This is a new annual event which celebrates the UK’s Armed forces (RAF, Royal Navy, and Army) –past, present and future. There were many events held throughout the UK today and I went along to show my support and had a fantastic day. I took my two young boys with me and explained to them what our soldiers do for our country. It is indeed very commendable the sacrifices these soldiers and their families make everyday for our country. It takes a certain type of person to be able to enter into this career path, a very brave person.

We have all studied World War I and II in history at school. These soldiers gave their lives for our freedom and peace. I cannot even begin to imagine how life was like for them, the pain and suffering and fear they all went through. Having to leave their loved ones behind not knowing if they will ever see them again is unimaginable. I think many of us take our lives for granted. Even though war is still ongoing in Afghanistan, due to it being so far away, it does not seem to impact on us directly. But can you imagine living in the thick of it? That thought terrifies me. We all see the images in the news on TV and we should be thankful that we do not have to live like that. I would love for people to upload their first hand accounts of their experiences on to Evergenes so we can all share their thoughts and never take for granted the sacrifices made by so many brave individuals for us.

I shall definitely be celebrating Armed Forces Day next year; it is our chance to say thank you.

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Cherishing Churchyards Week (19-28 June 2009)

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:10:36 +0200

I live quite near to a churchyard which in the past has been typically used as a burial ground. Every time I walk by, a number of thoughts cross my mind. Firstly, I’m struck by how quiet and peaceful this place actually is. Other thoughts include: the many different people that are buried here; the decayed bodies in the coffins; the amount of land taken up by graves and tombstones; the wildlife that now lives there; and if ghosts actually do exist?!! It is strange, but walking past a graveyard always stirs up many thoughts in my mind! I think I am fascinated with such places because I personally believe in cremation rather than burial.

This week is Cherishing Churchyards Week (19-28 June, 2009) and I wanted to write a bit about it as I can understand why there is a need for such causes. The use of churchyards as burial grounds for the deceased was discontinued between the 18th and 19th centuries and hence churchyards are full of history and it is important to preserve and maintain the heritage of such places.

Churchyards are regarded as special places by some for a number of reasons:
• They often contain a rich diversity of plant and animal life.
• They are important places for archaeology and history.
• They often have distinctive and veteran trees.
• The stonework and boundary walls provide a home for a mosaic of mosses, ferns and lichens.
• They provide a tranquil place for quiet reflection.
• They are a resource for community learning.
Churchyards are often within walking distance of local communities and can provide a focus for community involvement.

Many churchyards become the target of vandals which is completely disrespectful. It is a shame that more people do not appreciate the historical importance of such sites.
Whatever our beliefs on life and death are, we should at least respect the resting ground of our ancestors.

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My adorable new little kittens!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:22:32 +0200

My husband for a long time now has been asking for a dog, to which I reply ‘if you can take it out 3 times a day and pick up its mess, then you go for it’! I struggle to get up in the mornings and take the children to nursery on time, let alone also fit in the time to take a dog out for a walk! As he works shifts, he is unable to do this. So he has turned his attention to wanting a cat. I personally prefer dogs to cats and so I said no, again. So he took me on a little ‘surprise’ trip one day and did not tell me where we were going. We went to see the most adorable kittens and it was love at first sight!

They are Burmese kittens and are 12 weeks old. The brown one is a boy and the grey is a little girl. We pick them up in a week or so after their vaccinations. We have been thinking of names, Ella for the girl, but we cannot decide on the boy cat’s name. I have never had a cat before and do not know what to expect!

To be honest, I am quite nervous about taking on two more pets. We already have a 6 year old rabbit and a 25 year old terrapin. My rabbit has cost me £100 pounds this week as he required some ‘dental work’ as the vet put it! Although I think that it would be lovely to have cats and the kids would adore them, I also read not long ago that according to the RSPCA, many cats and dogs are being abandoned every month due to the recession. My husband has recently given up smoking so the money he saves from this can go towards the upkeep for the cats.

Last month was national pet month. Britain is certainly a nation of animal lovers. Having a pet such as a cat or a dog does make a difference to your life, they definitely help to reduce stress and children learn how to care for animals. So, I think we have made a good decision and will definitely be showing photos of my new kittens once we get them in my ‘Pets’ section of my Evergenes account. If anyone has any good names in mind, please let me know.

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Earth day, April 22nd 2009

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:38:22 +0200

My best friend is an environmentalist and she mentioned that it was ‘Earth day’ yesterday. I was completely oblivious to what she was talking about, so I decided to find out.

Briefly, Earth day was founded by Senator Gaylord of Wisconsin and organised by Denis Hayes in 1970. Earth day is based on the premise that all people have a moral right to a healthy and sustainable environment. The Earth day network has over 17,000 partners and organisations in 174 countries. Over 1 billion people participate in Earth day activities.

April 22nd 1970, is the date when Earth day was born and millions of people protested against the deterioration of the environment. People began to realise that those fighting against oil spillages, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, pesticides, toxic dumps, loss of wilderness and wildlife extinction, all shared common values –safe guarding the environment.

It has become alarmingly apparent in the past few decades, the extent of the damage we humans have inflicted upon the world we live in. Many people are blissfully ignorant to this. Our planet can simply not withstand this abuse for much longer and it is our children who are going to suffer the consequences. Global warming is melting our ice caps at a faster rate than predicted. A couple of degrees increase in temperature will have drastic effects. Rises in sea levels will result in an economic and humanitarian disaster. Many cities like London, New York and Bangkok will end up below sea level. Coastal populations will be wiped out and water supplies contaminated.

We should all feel it is our duty to help save this planet for our future generations. If we all act rapidly to reduce emissions we can still prevent the worst effects of climate change. We need to switch to renewable energy resources to try to avoid rises in sea levels. Even basic tasks can help the environment such as picking up litter, recycling more at home and even planting a tree.

This is our planet. It is our responsibility to look after it. I want my children to grow up and see the world as we know it. Not a world that has been continually destroyed by humans. According to the latest edition of the Red List Of Threatened Species, compiled by the World Conservation Union, a total of 5,453 animal species are in danger of being wiped out forever, and 5,714 plant species. 41 of them are found in the United Kingdom.

We all need to act now to preserve this world for our next generation. There is no point preserving our life history with Evergenes if there is no world left to enjoy it in.

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Panorama – Britain’s Homecare Scandal

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:55:42 +0200

I was extremely upset and shocked the other night after I watched Panorama – Britain’s Homecare Scandal. It was incredibly disturbing to watch how appallingly many elderly people are treated.

I am 32 years of age and the thought of growing old does not often cross my mind. However, after watching Panorama, I now dread the thought. Ageing is inevitable; we are all going to grow old at some point. However, why should growing old mean that many of us become neglected, vulnerable and almost invisible? I personally could not bear the thought of my parents or grandparents suffering like that.

The government want the elderly to be able to stay in the comfort of their own homes. Unfortunately, the appropriate care and attention is not always provided. This is not due to the carers themselves but the companies from the independent sector chosen by the government. With contracts being given to the cheapest bidders, it is therefore no surprise that substandard care is often administered. Carers are not given the appropriate training, are overworked, underpaid and poorly managed. The people that suffer are the elderly.

Not everything in this world should be motivated by money. The government should not be giving contracts to the lowest bidders, but to the companies that provide the best quality care. We should not forget that these people were once like us once, and helped to shape the world that we live in today and often take for granted.

In many cultures, grandparents often live with the family. I think that this is a wonderful tradition, but understand that this is not always practical. We have to remember that the elderly were once like us, young, active, fought for our country, bought us up and continue to help us for as long as they are able. My two boys adore both sets of grandparents and I don’t know what I would do without them helping to baby sit. I have been uploading photos of my parents and creating scrapbooks of their lives so that in the future my children will be able to easily look up their family history on Evergenes and they can in turn sit down with their children and tell them all about their great grandparents.

I wish I knew more about my grandparent’s lives, where they grew up, what they enjoyed to do etc. However this is not possible for me as my grandparents lived in India. I hope that people will also see the benefit of Evergenes and upload their family history online for all to enjoy in the future. It is completely free after all!

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Spending hours of your time on the internet may not be all that bad

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:24:18 +0200

For the vast majority of us, logging onto the internet each day and surfing the web has become an integral part of our lives. I can often spend at least a couple of hours each evening, mainly on social networking sites. I find myself flicking between them mainly to see what my friends are up to. But this does however sometimes result in me thinking, wow, I have actually spent so much time looking aimlessly through web pages? What have I actually achieved with the precious amount of spare time I have in the evenings?

Granted, Evergenes is a social networking site with all the usual features that other sites have to offer, i.e. upload and share photos; connect with friends and family and so on. But with Evergenes all the scrapbooks about my life that I have created, are stored on the web forever, and hence the time I have spent creating them has been constructive.

I personally don’t relish the thought of getting old, passing away and being forgotten. At present, I have not done anything that remarkable to warrant my life being displayed in a book. Knowing that I will be on the internet forever makes me feel like I will not be forgotten, and my great, great grandchildren will be able to look at photographs of me and learn all about my life.

Scrapbooks can be created about any aspect of your life by entering into any one of the 13 main categories (career, interests, pets, holidays, occasions etc), in which you can create albums to upload your photos, audio, video and text, explaining the story behind each one. Everything you upload can be assigned one of 5 privacy options. I love this as there are some photos I do not want certain people to see! The ‘public release date’ feature allows you to have control over when you would like your account to become public, whether it is now or in 20 or 50 years time.

You don’t have to spend hours building your profile. Allocate just half an hour a week or whatever time you can spare and not only can you look back and see how your life has changed over the years, but so can your future generations.

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Evergenes - A new and useful social networking site

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:27:51 +0100

So, what is http://www.evergenes.com/? Not another free social networking site?! Yes, but with a difference. Spending your precious time using this site can actually be worthwhile not only for yourself, but for your family and friends in years to come.

Since I turned 30 years of age, I began to think more about life. One of my thoughts was how we take many of the things we have for granted and that I was glad to have been born in this generation. Simple, basic things such as central heating, mobile phones, Sat-nav, HD televisions, DAB radios, iPod’s, Wii’s…………..the list is endless. However it was not so long ago that families used to huddle together around the fire to keep warm watching TV in black and white, or if you were not fortunate enough to have one, then listening to a crackly radio station.

This made me think about my ancestors. How did they live? Where did they live? What did they do to entertain themselves? What did they think of the world as they knew it?

So, I decided to take a look into my families past, but unfortunately did not get very far. This is largely due to the fact that my parents moved to England in the 1960’s, so to find out about my grandparents and great grandparents is virtually impossible for me unless I go to India, and even then I wouldn’t know where to start. All I have to go on is what my parents can tell me and a few dusty old photographs which I’m sure will end up in a box in the attic, only to be long forgotten about.

Currently, the easiest place to access information about anything you desire is via the internet. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if I could just log onto the web and easily find out about my ancestors? Well, this is a great idea, and is now possible through Evergenes by making the time and effort to build your own profiles on the site. But why stop there? Build profiles for your parents if they are unable to do so themselves and ask them about your grandparents and great grandparents and create profiles for them too. Evergenes is completely FREE to use, all it requires is a small amount of your time.

You can then in turn sit down with your own children, log onto www.evergenes.com and easily show them all about their family history. It would also be interesting to look back at yourself over the years and see how your own life has changed. Evergenes donates 10% of profits to charities within the Evergenes foundation, so by regularly using the website you too are helping these charities.

So why not give it a try and do something worthwhile.

The past, present and future, www.evergenes.com…life goes on-line.

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New family orientated social website

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:04:25 +0200

Evergenes was conceived when someone close to us passed away. We wished we had more pictures and videos we could easily access and also to show our children, so that they in turn could see what that person was like.

So what is Evergenes? Well, Evergenes is an exciting new FREE web-based service which enables you to document your life and store it for future generations. Your own words, pictures and videos will be stored, and made available to who you choose, when you choose. Your family and friends will be able to access the site and learn about you. As your profile grows, you will be able to look back at what you were like in the past.

Many of us are intrigued by our past and would love to learn more about our ancestors. It is fascinating to find out what they looked like, what they did, and where they lived. However, this is not always possible. Evergenes’ aim is to become a resource for people to find out what their great grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends and family were like, and you will always have a place in history. You will never be forgotten.

Everyone can benefit from using this fantastic new site. The best thing is that its completely FREE to use! This site will appeal to all ages. The younger you start using it, the more information you can archive about yourself, which will not only allow others but also yourself to look back on in the years to come and reminisce over. You will be able to visibly see how your appearance changed along with your views and thoughts.

Adults will find this site invaluable for many reasons. You can keep track of your daily appointments with the calendar function, and also log your day’s thoughts and events in the journal section. You can stay in constant reach of family and friends by adding them to your list of contacts, sharing pictures and videos with them, so you never have to lose touch again. Each category, written entry, or video can be assigned a unique privacy setting, even down to individual photos. You can choose who can see what very easily. You can also make and view announcements to your family and friends.

There are thirteen main categories within the site, some of which contain sub-categories. Combined, they cover most aspects of one’s life, so that you can keep a detailed record of what you are doing.

Once you enter a category you can start by filling in your details in a number of ways. You can either create your own media book, and start adding content to it, or use the category specific content guide to automatically create one for you. This way, if you ever get stumped on what to write about, help and inspiration is always at hand.

The more mature adults will also find this site extremely beneficial, as during a lifetime the majority of us will have accumulated many pictures and videos which they don’t want hidden away, but instead would like on display for their friends and loved ones to see. By adding these memories to the site, future generations will be able to see what their ancestors were like, so you will never be forgotten but always remembered. Evergenes also gives you the added ability to leave personal messages to people. This can be in a written, spoken or visual form, or even a combination.

A lot of thought and planning has gone into developing Evergenes to ensure that it is simple and easy to use for all age groups, without compromising detail. Once a user has created a free account, they can choose one of many categories to enter and begin to form a repository of information. A release date for the account can be set for the future, but you can also keep information private, allowing you to keep a personal diary of events. Also, Evergenes acts as a backup archive. You can share pictures with your friends through the site, and, in the unfortunate event of you losing your pictures, Evergenes will have all this information safely stored. Unlike other social networking sites, Evergenes stores these photos at a sufficient quality so they can be printed at any time. This will be invaluable not only to the user, but also his/her future descendants.

Evergenes also has a ‘Historical Events' area, which is independent to the main user section of the site. Anyone can add an account of their first-hand experiences on important world events. Whether it is pictures or video footage of the attack on the Twin Towers to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this area will allow you to submit your experiences in your own words on any event you feel will shape history, and share them with the world.

Evergenes.com

- A repository of information
- Your life documented forever
- Free to use

Start making history now…

Coming soon!

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