So many films are being released for the summer season, and there may well be lines we’ll be quoting for years to come.

We’ve all been going to see films – and eating lots of popcorn - since we were little kids.

Can you remember the first film or feature-length cartoon you saw with your parents? What was the first film you went to with your friends – no parents?

All of us have our favorite cinema lines. They range from “I’ll be baaack!” (The Terminator) to "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" (Gone With the Wind). Perhaps you prefer “There’s no place like home” (The Wizard of Oz), or “May the Force be with you,” a Star Wars favorite.

It must be fate that encouraged us to publish this post on the 35th anniversary of that space epic's opening!

A personal favorite is from Airplane! where a character says “Surely you can't be serious," while the other replies, "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley."

For a list of 100 memorable movie quotes see the American Film Institute (AFI) list.

Movie lines are such serious business that Cornell University’s computer scientists analyzed 1,000 movie scripts and a database of memorable quotes from those movies (Internet Movie Database) to learn the secret of what makes a line memorable.

The most memorable lines use a familiar sentence structure but use distinctive words or phrases and they make general statements that could apply elsewhere.

While the study was focused on movie scripts, the scientists said the analysis could have applications on marketing, politics, entertainment and social media, and that the same rules apply to advertising slogans.

Read the Cornell University press release. You can also take the memorability test.

Share with us your favorite movie quote – and your favorite film - in the comments below.

See you at the movies!

Now a Melbourne, Australia resident, Nghia (Neil) Huynh was born in Saigon, Vietnam.

The youngest of eight children, he is 54. His parents – from Bien Hoa and Di An – had lived in Saigon since the early 1940s. His father was a civil servant in the old South Vietnam government, and his mother took care of their large family.

Neil's family: His parents (from left), Huynh Thang Nhut and Dinh Thi Quyen; sisters Huynh Thi Xuan Hoang, Huynh Thi Xuan Ha; brother, Huynh Thang Toan.

Neil grew up and attended school in the city while the Vietnam War was escalating, and was in year 12 when the city fell. His father was sent to a “re-education” camp, while Neil struggled to continue his university studies during that difficult period.

I finally graduated and immediately decided to escape the country. I was strongly discriminated against by the regime because of my political background. In 1979, I escaped by boat and reached a Malaysian refugee camp. Accepted by the Australian government under the humanitarian category, I settled in Melbourne in 1980.

Neil studied information technology and had his first IT job in 1986, working in the field since then. Today, he manages a small travel industry business. He is married and has two children, 25 and 16.

Although he has lived away from his roots in Vietnam for more than 30 years, he recently returned and reconnected with family members, who provided a vast amount of data about their family. Neil became so interested that he decided to create a family tree.

Through his family investigation, he discovered that:

My paternal great-grandfather was a Chinese national, who migrated from China to central Vietnam, then South Vietnam (Bien Hoa and Di An). Most of the information is still scattered and unclear. Thus it is my desire to investigate further.

Neil's paternal grandparents (from left): Nguyen Thi Chieu and Huynh Van Tai.

In February 2012, he began searching for a platform on which to build his family tree and discovered MyHeritage.

The site is very good. It has given me and my family much more than what we asked for.

Neil’s family is involved in his research and are members of his MyHeritage family site, which has helped in many ways, particularly communication between family members and sharing of information, documents and photos.

Currently, he has 285 people in his tree; they live around the world (in Australia, Vietnam, Europe and the USA). He has not yet looked at SmartMatches.

Neil writes that he has found many long lost relatives. At the beginning, it was simple word of mouth that connected people, and then via the website, where everyone could access and share information. He shared a story about his cousin Hien:

Hien is my cousin, but we have not seen each other for 40 years. Another cousin, an active family site member, sent an invitation to Hien. Since then, we have emailed each other. I was stunned to see his uploaded photo – after so many years - on our family site.

Here's a tip from Neil for those who are just beginning a family project:

Make a small start first and then expand it gradually by attracting more members

Congratulations to Neil for bringing his family together from around the world, and we thank him for sharing his story.

We’d love to hear your unique story of how you became interested in family history and how your MyHeritage family site has helped further your research.

Family history researchers are often curious about someone in their ancestry for whom they can find no information.

The quest for information for that individual becomes the family mystery. As researchers, we feel that finding that elusive data will provide another piece of our family tree puzzle.

Even though we've accessed every available research tool (including searching for our uncommon names on Facebook and Twitter), we may still run into a brick wall. So what can we do to broaden our search?

Genealogy forums and special interest discussion groups are useful places to ask for help, while MyHeritage's own Smart Matches™ are a useful tool to uncover information and relatives.

For whom are you looking? Grandparents, great-grandparents or contemporary cousins? Have you discovered family through Smart Matches?

Tell us about your discoveries in the comments below.

Sports are a traditional part of family entertainment.

Allegiance to specific teams - which team you cheer for - is something generally passed down through the generations.

Baseball, basketball, football, soccer, rugby, cricket - so many teams with associations to certain cities. To New Yorkers, it will always be the "Brooklyn" Dodgers, even though they left for other parts long ago, while Chicagoans will always love "Da Bears."

We go with our families to sporting events. We support the same team, we console each other when they lose and celebrate when they win. Our family team is part of our shared family experience.

I remember going with my family to watch football games, and I imagine taking my own children, when they're old enough to appreciate it.

We're interested in learning if you have a family team. Does your family cheer on the same team? Or, do  you support rival teams? Let us know via the poll below.

The National Archives, Washington DC (Credit: archives.gov)

On my recent visit to Washington, I met with representatives of the National Archives and the US Holocaust Museum, but also spent time at the Library of Congress and do some genealogy research.

Although MyHeritage didn’t have a table in the exhibit tent, it was nice to see long time friends including geneablogger DearMyrtle (and Mr. Myrtle), members of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington, the Fairfax (Virginia) Genealogy Society, and those from other genealogy companies.

Talks were scheduled in three tents outside the NARA building and were always at full capacity. This free annual event attracts attendees from DC and surrounding areas, as well as many who just walk by and discover the program! The diverse variety of topics covered everything from basic research steps to different record types and the already-famous 1940 Census.

A group of expert genealogy volunteers also dedicated their time to work one-on-one with many attendees to help with brick wall questions, point them in the right research direction or provide leads as to where needed information may be lurking.

During my meetings, I learned about digitizing and indexing projects that the National Archives is working on with different partners. Some are Civil War documents, photos, videos and government personalities’ personal correspondence.

I also met with the people behind NARA’s social media, including Facebook, blogs, Twitter and Foursquare. This archive is one of the most advanced in exploring all media possibilities to communicate with their users. I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more material very soon.

At the Library of Congress (LOC), I discovered an essential and often-neglected resource: City directories and phone books.  The library has a large collection and researchers can find almost every country and year represented. I even found some family members listed and could track their different addresses through the years.

Of course, I didn’t dial those numbers to call them today. Most were so old that the numbers had fewer digits than today. However, it was a fascinating experience to travel back in time and explore this great resource.

In fact, I spent so much time at the LOC that I was almost locked in overnight. They finally asked me to leave at 9.30pm, when the library closed.

If you're in Washington, DC at some time, do make plans to visit NARA and the LOC.

Have you already visited NARA and LOC? If so, share your experiences and what you discovered.  We look forward to reading your comments.

Dick Eastman

This post was co-authored by MyHeritage US genealogy adviser, Schelly Talalay Dardashti and MyHeritage business development manager and genealogist, Mark Olsen.

One of the most recognized names in the genealogy world, Dick Eastman is synonymous with geneablogging and using technology to improve your family history experience.

At the recent National Genealogical Society conference in Cincinnati, the MyHeritage team saw a chance to spend some personal time with Dick - and tour his recreational vehicle (RV) - we jumped at the opportunity.

For the past year or so, Dick has left his Massachusetts home for several months at a time while he roams the country - geneahopping from one genealogy event to another, not only in the US, but globally. Since the end of 2011, he’s been home for no more than three days at a time, but is looking forward to being home again in a few weeks.

While attending NGS, Dick parked his RV and drove his towed Mini Cooper into town each morning.

Dick's Mini Cooper

Being in demand at so many conferences takes detailed planning by Dick. This now includes road travel, RV campground arrangements and - most importantly – arranging for Internet connections so he can log on and write the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter (www.eogn.com).

A group of us got together at a Brazilian steakhouse. In addition to the MyHeritage team (Daniel Horowitz, Mark Olsen, and Schelly Talalay Dardashti), the group included Dick, Pamela Weisberger (Los Angeles), Elise Friedman and Alex Yi (FamilyTreeDNA.com), and our friend Chris Mueller (Albuqerque). Since Schelly’s birthday was a few days later, we shared a candle-topped dessert and sang Happy Birthday.

Genealogy conferences are always happy events as we enjoy relaxing with our friends after a busy day at our booth in the exhibit hall.

We needed an Internet connection at dinner, and Dick pulled out three hotspots from three providers. It is nice to travel with a techie!

After dinner, Daniel, Mark, Schelly and Chris followed Dick back to his home-on-wheels for an exclusive visit. It was an interesting experience seeing Dick's working environment on the road.

His RV was parked at a campground about 20 miles away. It was late when we got there and other park visitors had campfires going under the tall trees, while others had pitched tents on grassy spots.

Dick's RV

Dick was in the process of rewiring the RV so he could connect more easily. He has a satellite dish and other Wi-Fi devices to help!

From the comfort of his compact, practical RV - and in a beautiful area - Dick posts to his newsletter several times a day, three on average.

He tells us that he spends a lot of times at the RV kitchen table, as seen in the photo above, as well as many hours sitting in the open air outside the RV at the picnic tables that are always nearby in the RV parks he frequents.

He spends many hours each day reading all the latest news in the world of genealogy, as well as reviewing technology announcements that often impact modern family history technology. Such technology now includes DNA genetic genealogy, facial recognition – which adds to photo sharing and creating family history – and other aspects.

We thank Dick for the personal tour of his RV and glimpse into his life, and also for the 30+ years he has spent in family history. He has helped shaped the current scene, now increasingly focused on preserving family history. We all saw this clearly on April 2, as millions of people from around the world searched for their ancestors in the 1940 census on MyHeritage.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, as well as other sites.

Thank you for your efforts, Dick. We look forward to seeing you at another conference very soon.

From Left: Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Mark Olsen, Daniel Horowitz and Dick Eastman

On Wednesday, the team was busy at the booth answering questions and providing more information to attendees who had heard about MyHeritage from speakers who spoke about our very social family trees, WorldVitalRecords.com data, facial recognition technology and much more.

In the evening, Daniel Horowitz and Mark Olsen joined hundreds of conference-goers at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for a moving experience as they learned about the lives of thousands of freedom seekers and “conductors” (those of all races and backgrounds who assisted the enslaved to reach the Ohio River and beyond – freedom – at their own and their families' risk). Although not an actual railroad, nor underground, it was the secret route used to transfer the slaves from one location to another – from one farm or home to the next – until he or she reached freedom.

Portrayal of a man hiding behind a tree in his quest for freedom - National Underground Railroad Museum Cincinnati, Ohio

Many moving scenes are portrayed. If you visit Cincinnati, the museum should be on your must-see list.

Thursday was another fabulous day full of hundreds of great interactions with customers at the booth and conference goers looking to soak in as much information as they could through classes and interactions with other genealogists and vendors.

On Friday NGS organizers announced that the official NGS attendance was 2,155, resulting in packed session rooms. Many sessions reached capacity, and fire codes are very strict. There were reports of some attendees who could not get a seat in the session they wanted to attend. Technology and census sessions seem to be drawing the largest crowds.

Friday continued to be a great day at NGS.  Mark was able to attend several very informative sessions.  The most informative being a great discussion on properly using the US Census for research by Jill Crandell of the Brigham Young University Center for Family History and Genealogy.  The center sends interns around the globe to gather immigrant records and other data to document the path from old world to new and help provide clues allowing many to ‘bridge the gap’. Jill discussed the many hidden pieces of information that can be found in the census when using the appropriate search strategies.

Friday was consistently very busy in the exhibit hall.  There were many times that people were lined up to ask questions and learn more about MyHeritage and its products and services.

The Ancestry Insider along with others at the blogger dinner hosted by FamilySearch who wish to remain unnamed

Saturday was another great day at the conference with classrooms continuing to be nearly full or beyond.  The conference wrapped up as it started with over 2,100 in attendance in full classroom and between classes wandering the rows of exhibits looking for a great deal, answers to genealogy or technical issues and a continued excitement about the ever growing world of genealogy and all its possibilities.

Overall NGS was an excellent conference.  We have much more information and photos to share including a one of a kind visit with a well-known genealogy blogger.  Over the next few weeks we will dive in and post more about NGS and all that occurred during the fabulous week in Cincinnati, Ohio – Gateway to the Western Frontier.

Genealogist and Blogger Lisa Alzo visits with Schelly Talalay Dardashti and MyHeritage Chief Content Officer Russ Wilding

This post is also published on the WorldVitalRecords blog (part of the MyHeritage family).

This annual event was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993. It’s a day for reflecting on the importance of family and for raising awareness of issues affecting families across the globe.

The theme of this year's International Day of Families is "Ensuring work family balance."

Maintaining a healthy work/life balance is one of the major challenges of modern life. We may work longer or shorter hours than our ancestors, but we live further away from family who are traditionally our key support network.

We constantly strive to succeed in our careers, but with the world becoming smaller and more digital, we are always online and always connected so that we can stay on top of our ever-increasing workloads.

According to AOL’s 4^th annual ‘Email Addiction’ survey, 62% of people check work email on weekends.

How can we ensure that we reach a healthy balance of personal life and work?

In this article from Forbes, the author suggests prioritizing and focusing on what’s personally important. People talk about the idea of a personal audit, how we each spend our time.

It’s about asking ourselves the hard-hitting questions, such as, whether we do focus on what's important in our lives. Are you ensuring you’re doing everything you can to make the people in your life happy? Do you spend enough time with your family? If you were to die tomorrow, would you be happy with how you lived today?

In his message for International Day of Families UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states:

We need to respond to the ever-changing complexities of work and family life.  I welcome the establishment of family-friendly workplaces through parental leave provisions, flexible working arrangements and better childcare.

Such policies and programs are critical to enhancing the work-family balance.  These actions can also lead to better working conditions, greater employee health and productivity, and a more concerted focus on gender equality.

In the modern world, it’s vital for our well-being to take stock, and ensure we're not forgetting to live our lives. Take a minute today to focus on what’s important to you, and how you can make your work/life balance better. This will not only make you happier, but will probably make you a more productive employee.

If Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg can leave work every day at 5.30pm to have dinner with her children, maybe you can, too.

How are you trying to achieve a balance between your professional life and your family life?

Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter. We'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions.

I love my family because..... How would you finish this sentence?

Following the success of our competition "I love genealogy because" last August, we're giving you another chance to win a free one-year PremiumPlus subscription to www.MyHeritage.com!

There are many reasons why we love family, but we want to know yours. Complete the sentence - "I love my family because..." in the comments below or on our Facebook Page between now and May 20 and our favorite comment will win the subscription . The winner will be notified on May 21.

We're running this in advance of International Day of Families which takes place tomorrow, May 15.

We look forward to your comments!

We wish all of you celebrating it today, a Happy Mother's Day! May those mothers enjoy a day filled with fun, surrounded by family.

We asked you to share with us via our blog, Facebook page or Twitter, what makes your Mom special. We received some very moving responses from all over the world and selected our favorite ones for publication:

Stephanie:

Perseverance is what makes my mom special, and the phrase "crying doesn’t solve anything" has taught me to always look for a solution, rather than complain about it.

Nancy:

My mother, Carolyn Steindel Smith, will be 92 in June. At the age of 7 my brother Paul was diagnosed with polio and the Doctors said he would die. He will be 70 tomorrow. My mother lost her other son at the age of 21 and my father at 69. My mom has been a worker, companion, caregiver, mother, wife and grandmother. She is unselfish and has always been an incredible support system. Unfortunately, the tables have turned and my husband and I both assist in caring for my mother and brother as we all reside in the same home. Happy Mother's Day!!! She needs some applause!

Marcos:

My mother's main priority and concern is her children's happiness. No matter how busy she is, she always makes time for us. We celebrate our birthdays together and whenever the family gets together, she cries tears of joy. She's very loving and charitable with people in need, always offering her hand to those asking for help. She's a woman of faith, Christian, and very close to her traditions and people. She's a fearless fighter. This is how I see my mother, and I wanted to share it with love for her.

Martha:

What can I say about my mother? She was the most wonderful gift God gave my family. Unfortunately she’s no longer physically here but she’ll always be in my heart. Spiritually, she was my mother, sister and friend and I still can’t believe she's not here...

For those of you fortunate enough to have your mother around, enjoy her and try to spend lots of time together. When that star has no more light to shine, the darkness is immense... I see her in my dreams and when I do, I don't want to wake up. Mom, I still love you no matter where you are and I can’t wait for the moment we can meet again. God bless all the good mothers and children.

How do you celebrate Mother's Day?  How many generations of mothers in your family are celebrating together?  Let us know in the comments below.