Recipe Roots: Your family's recipes, in their own time

 Companion post to Episode 9 of A Country Girl Rambles, "Recipe Roots: Your family's recipes, in their own time." A member's idea becomes a new feature, plus news and events from around the tree. You can also watch the episode on YouTube, where I share my screen and show the new family story box.

I love it when a G2G comment turns into a real improvement! After I shared Recipe Roots, my little tool for turning a WikiTree family into a printable family cookbook, a member wrote such a lovely reply on my G2G post. (G2G stands for "genealogist to genealogist," and it's our community forum on WikiTree.) She remembered making a family recipe book as a gift for her nephew, and then she asked a question that really stuck with me: what about the stories around each dish?

The stories behind the recipes

Her questions were the best kind. What occasion was it made for? Did it come from the cook's cultural background? What feelings does it bring back? Those are the things that make a family recipe a family recipe. It's not just the ingredients, it's who stood at the stove and when the dish showed up on the table.

Recipe Roots could already print a short story in italics under a recipe, in the family's own words. But if nothing prompted you, that box simply stayed blank. So, this week I added a Family story box to the proofreading sheet, with three gentle prompts:

• 
  the occasion the dish was made for,
• where the recipe came from, and
• what you remember about eating it.

Each recipe gets its own proofreading sheet before it goes in the book. You'll see the original recipe card next to the tool's first attempt at reading the handwriting, and it points out where it thinks the reading might be wrong, so you can clean up any mistakes. You can fill in the yield, add your family story, and then check the box to mark the card as reviewed.

If a recipe doesn't have a story yet, the box is open and waiting for you. If it already has one, it's tucked under "Add more to the story?" The book still prints exactly what you write. The tool only suggests, and it never rewrites your words.

Another member also pointed out that the bride's side of the family fits just as well, since a recipe goes under whoever cooked it. Thank you so much to everyone who shared ideas and stopped by to cheer it on!

If you've got a recipe box or a stack of handwritten cards, you can try it here: Recipe Roots, and share your own feedback on the G2G post.

What I've been working on

• Headstone Photo Tool: support for the Headstone Photo Tool is now in preview mode in WikiTree Sourcer, so you can test it there now! It should be in the regular version of Sourcer after the beginning of November.
• Cemetery Map: the opening map now shows a dot for every place that already has a cemetery map built, so you can zoom in and check them out.
• Name Cloud: being featured in the newsletter brought in so much wonderful feedback, along with the G2G post! I'm still working through it, and you'll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks.

You can find all of them on my WT Apps by Azure page.

News from around WikiTree

WikiTree turns 18 on Thursday, 5 November! This year we're calling it WikiTree Days, because the celebration runs from the 5th through the 8th. There will be so many livecasts, Zoom sessions, project challenges, Speed Cousining, BINGO, prizes, and games. Make sure you register for the WikiTree Days celebration, because that's how you get entered to win a prize! The help page links to the G2G post with all the details on how to register.

I'll be leading an interactive Zoom session on Friday, 6 November, at 5pm ET called "Branching Out into Blogging: Starting Your Genealogy Blog and Sharing WikiTree," and I'd love to see you there! I'll do a full WikiTree Days preview in next week's episode, the day before it all kicks off.

The next WikiTree Challenge, #11 with Gideon Greenspan, kicks off the week after WikiTree Days, on Thursday, 12 November, at noon ET, and runs through the 19th. Everybody is welcome to join in! It's a great way to learn more about WikiTree and how we do collaborative genealogy here.

Upcoming events & challenges

Thursday, 29 October: Hacktoberfest livecast at 1pm ET, the last official livecast of Hacktoberfest. There will also be a final Hacktoberfest wrap-up on Saturday, 7 November, during WikiTree Days, once everything from the month is live.

Friday, 30 October: Link Builders Challenge Cubicle Party at 3pm ET and again at 7pm ET. Come to either one, or both! They're relaxed sessions where we share what the challenge is all about and how our scores are looking for October.

Saturday, 31 October: Saturday Roundup at 10am ET, the US Black Heritage Project's working session in honor of Denise Eckhoff at 2pm ET, and the Genealogy Collaboration Hour at 5pm ET. These Zoom sessions aren't recorded, so they're a relaxed, fun place to ask questions, or just lurk and listen!

And don't forget the Weekend Chat on G2G every weekend! For everything else coming up, check out Help:Calendar.

Do you have a family recipe with a story behind it? WikiTree is a great place to collaborate, and I'd love to hear it!

Hope to see you around the branches!

Check out all I'm working on here: WT Apps by Azure