About This Blog

This is my first time blogging, so please be patient. I have in past years started various journals offline--you know all about those cute little diaries, right?  Somehow they never lasted long.  We'll see how long I last with this online journal.

I hope to use this space to share my genealogical journey, as well as personal stories from my mother and other family members as the mood strikes. My mom likes to tell stories about our family history, and since I don't know how much longer I will have her, this blog is for her memories as much as mine.

I've always been interested in history and the current events which become history. I was interested in hearing family stories. It wasn't til last summer that I got hooked on genealogy. My sister was interested in getting into the DAR.  We knew that our paternal great aunt Mamie had been active in one of the Central Minnesota chapters, but we didn't know the relative that made us eligible. I decided to start building our tree, using a Familytree Maker program that I got free with my last computer purchase a few years ago.

The first few generations were easy on both sides, thanks to Mom's memories of stories and people from her side of the family and conversations she had had with her mother-in-law and other members of my dad's family.  He died in 1998, so I was not able to ask him. I had some limited information from some family members who had done research ahead of me.  I was still several generations short of my eligible ancestor, so I used the names I had and started googling.  And Binging.  And Yahooing.  And Asking.  And...well you get the idea. I found a LOT out there on the Web, which was a good thing, as I didn't have the financial resources to go digging for records in courthouses and other places.

I found websites full of family history of different branches.  Some of the history was more accurate than others, given people's inclination to use other people's research.  Not that I am in any position to point fingers, since I was doing much the same thing.  But I did learn over the past 9 months how to sift through the multitude of sites out there. I also learned to appreciate the major research sites like Familysearch and Findagrave. Best of all, I have met cousins online that I would not have known about if I hadn't undertaken this journey.

And on the way I got hooked on genealogy.