War Whoop!

I let out a war whoop last night - I think I scared poor Paul to death. I had just downloaded Google Earth and was trying it out. I thought I'd see if I could find the towns in the Czech Republic where my dad's family was from. The war whoop was because I did! It was SO exciting to see where my family was from ! Google Earth is an awesome thing! I got to see where my family had lived without ever leaving my home. How much cooler does it get?

I just completed a project for a friend of mine. She has a daughter who is 16 and thinking about college. Michelle wanted me to trace her family for her so that her daughter could join the DAR and try for a scholarship thru them. All I needed to do was get Shannon's lines back to Revolutionary war vets. That's all she wanted. Well, that wasn't enough for me. I had to take the lines back as far as I could and find out as much as I could. What should have been a simple project turned into a two year project. It's a good thing Michelle is patient.

I love introducing people to genealogy. I love helping them trace their family back. I'll even do it for them - like I did for Michelle. However, when they start bugging me about it and wanting to know when it'll be done then I stop working on it. I lose my "want" to do it. They don't realize that a genealogy is an ongoing process. They don't stop to think about the hours I put in on the project, let alone the amount of ink and paper I use to print it up for them. I guess, to me, genealogy is like a work of art......it can't be rushed.

Genealogy Is ___________

Genealogy is a wonderful thing. It's like a good book......it starts out a little slow, then adds a little mystery. The deeper you get into the book the more it sucks you in until you can't put it down. It makes you ask questions and keeps stringing you along until.......BAMMMM - you're at the end of the book when it all comes together and the question is answered. The only problem with genealogy is that the book is never done. One answer leads to 5 more questions and you start all over again.

For a lot of people genealogy is just a bunch of names and dates - cut and dry and boring. For me genealogy is a step back in time. It's a window into the lives of people who lived before me. When I search for my ancestors not only do I search for their names and their dates, I search for their lives. I want to know when they lived, how they lived, what they did for a living, what kind of a house they lived in, what they died from, and why they made the decisions that they did.

Genealogy is my therapy. When everything else in my life becomes overwhelming and my stress level is high I can bury myself in my research and forget about the rest of the world and all my problems. As much as I love the present, I crave the past. It's like an addiction.

The Beginning

I don't remember a time in my life that I wasn't interested in my family history. I remember as a small child asking my paternal grandfather where his family was. (We spent lots of time with my grandmother's family, but I didn't remember ever meeting any of my grandfathers family.) His answer to me was "They are all gone." I'll never forget how sad I felt when he told me this. I thought it was just awful that all of his family was gone and how lonely he must be without them.

By the time I got around to trying to find my family history both of my grandfathers were gone. It's not that I hadn't tried to find things, it's just that it was very hard to do any research then - we didn't have computers to help us. And, like most people, I put off asking the questions I should have asked when the people I needed to ask were around. I always put it off until tomorrow.......and tomorrow never came.

In the beginning there was nothing. In the beginning I knew nothing.
They say that the beginning is but a single step. I took that step. A step that has taken me more places than I could have dreamed.

This was the beginning of my journey thru time.

Why am I here?

For a few years now people have been telling me "You need to write a book." About what? "Your research - how you found your family history." And who would read such a thing? "Many people would be interested, but mostly, it'll be something for your family - a legacy you can leave them." Oh. Ok. Well, maybe I will. For now, though, I'll blog and see what happens.

So, here I am. Day 1. Why am I here?

I am here thanks to hundreds and hundreds of ancestors before me. I am here thanks to their normal day to day lives - no matter how insignificant or how magnificant their life may have been. I am here because they lived......and died......with no thought to what their time on earth would mean to anyone other than themselves. I am here to honor them and to learn from them and to tell their stories.

I am here....because.