Thursday, June 12, 2025

So a couple of years later...

It was a really slow day at work last week so one day I decided to see if I could still find my old blog.  I did and I read the entire blog over the course of the day.  I really wish I'd continued with the 52 ancestors thing, so  I decided to get the themes and start again.

Week 1's theme was "In the Beginning"

For me, the beginning was when I was about 15.  As I vaguely recall, there was a summer class at the school library on genealogy.  I was already a history buff, so what history would be more interesting than my own?  Talked to my dad's parents, who were local for me, and wrote a letter to my mom's mother in Indiana, and filled in the basic blanks going back a few generations.  Everything was done on paper back then, of course - no computers to help us out in so many ways as it is now.

I remember going into Madison, to the State Historical Society library, more than a few times to do research on microfilm and microfiche.  That helped fill in many of the blanks.  Eventually discovered I have more than a few Mayflower ancestors so that was quite interesting as well.

College came and my interest slowed down.  But eventually I met and married my husband and there was a whole new set of ancestors!  Not mine by birth, but they would belong to my eventual children.  As my husband is an only child, all of the records passed down thru generations were already in our hands, or in his parents possession.    

As time moved on, I would do research off and on.  Our early computer was useful for compiling family group sheets and other records more quickly than writing them by hand.

And then came the age of internet.  It is so much easier to do research and compile information now.  I have a membership to ancestry.com which has been immensely helpful.  

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