Next in line please!

Well it has been a few weeks since I was contacted by Matt's boss to do his family research.  I was excited another "genealogist" is being born.  I have gotten a few generations back on his mom's side since she had more information to work with in her obituary.  It had parents names, etc.  I know he really wants me to do his dad's side.  He really wants me to look into those Irish roots that he wants to be proud of. 

Well, I have asked him and his brothers multiple times for their dad's parents names and dates of birth etc.  Heck I would be happy with names at this point.  No response from anyone.  So I am putting this little project on the back burner.

Matt asked me last night if I had done anything on their dad's side.  How can I?  They gave me no information.  I am not good at make believe and writing children's books with fictional characters so I am putting it aside and focusing on my own family troubles.

People just don't understand the hard work it can take to pull together a family history.  My husband and I have been married almost 13 years and he still doesn't get it.  He sees me going to the library, court houses, hunting for old cemeteries, etc. and still doesn't understand.  So I guess, how can I expect others who have no experience with genealogy to get it.

Accepting new family members in my hunt

I feel like a grumpy old set in their ways grouch. I should be HAPPY to have help in my search of my hubby's family. When I saw his cousin looking and connecting ancestor information from my ancestry.com tree I was excited. I was so happy, someone on his side has crossed over to the "tree world."

I find myself cringing at the content on her new ancestry tree. Is there any proof to what she is gathering? Is she just taking the opinion of other people? Has she entered the "Land of Make Believe" or is she going to take the long hard trail in the "Tree World."

I wrote her an informative and guiding email about the importance of PUBLIC RECORDS, MILITARY RECORDS, CENSUS, LAND RECORDS, WILLS, etc. I mentioned the importance of using these records to form the true and correct relationships in the family. I see she has been an ancestry member for less than a month and has over 500 people in her tree going back hundreds of years.

My husband mentions to me not to worry, "She lists a lot of family members that aren't my relation." I need to remember she has a different grandfather then he did and a lot of the information is on that family.

I still worry about the information she is forming in her tree and am trying so hard not to step in and take over for her. It took me 13 years to get the 1500 people I have in the family line that connects her and my hubby together. I have to bite my tongue and allow her to make her own mistakes and learn to get out of them just like a lot of us end up doing in the beginning of our family research.

Well, at the moment that is all I have to add or vent about. Will post something more productive next time.

Genealogy Gems

I have been a listener of Genealogy Gems podcasts for quite a while. I have recently become a premium member of the site. Listening to podcasts on starting a blog I felt encouraged enough to give it a try. So here it is after about 15 years of research I am ready to spread my wings a bit more.


My history.


I became very interested in family history at a young age. In 1994, my senior year of high school, I spent many hours sitting at the local library in front of Microfilm projectors. I was always the only one searching through the local history and biography section of the library. My friends and classsmates at that time just didn't understand my obsession with family history.


I bought my first computer in 1995 when I was 19 years old. The first program I remember buying was a family tree program I got for $5 at Kmart. This opened me up to a world of charts and databases.


Then along came the internet. It was a slow moving hard to manage "monster" in those days. The only information I could find was on message boards posted by other family history researchers. It could take hours sometimes just to "dial-up" those boards and have the pages load.


WOW, what wonderful stories and connections I made in those good old Internet dinosaur days. Today, I am amazed at all the new and wonderful information that is loaded on the Internet everyday. Towns, Counties and States are loading old records, google is scanning and posting more books than I could ever imagine, and millions of people are uploading pictures and stories of their lives every hour.


I hope to use this blog to share my past research along with my new research. Perhaps, together we can break down those brick walls. We could fill in those large holes. Rake up all the leaves that were lost in the wind and find order in the pile we create.


I hope you enjoy sharing my joys, pitfalls, and accomplishments in this wonderful world of genealogy. I look forward to meeting many great new cousins and friends.


Thank you for reading.