Category: Genealogy

Pruning the Tree

I’ve started to “prune” my family tree. I think finding out someone wasn’t who you thought they were flings you out into the stages of grief… even though it was someone who I never met because they died before I was born! DENIAL: Absolutely, the first thing I think is:…

The Passing of a Generation

I’ve been trying to get some family lists together today. There are a lot of grand-aunts and uncles who had half a dozen kids each. It’s really sinking in about this GENERATION right now. When you look at the whole group of them together it’s like you get to this…

Lies, Lies, and more Lies

I should name my family tree: DYSFUNCTION. So what happens when your impressionable pre-teen watches you move to a new town and go around telling everyone that your husband is dead? He’s not. But maybe you couldn’t afford the divorce? Or maybe you have some kind of religious objection to…

Husband Wanted

I’m trying to find some record for a long-lost cousin. There was a newspaper clipping that looked promising – an obituary for the husband of a woman with the same name. I can’t find anything to link this one to her specifically, but after reading the obituary I really like…

Stories You Can’t Tell…

Hi there, I’m your illegitimate cousin. My great-grandmother was the woman your great-grandfather: Seduced? Raped? Paid? One of the reasons you can’t tell the story is that you don’t really know the story. But even if you did, how do you tell your cousin? On either side! At the same…

Putting My Mother in her Place

After a troubled relationship in life, I got some satisfaction today by successfully putting my mother in her place. No, not like you might think… I was on Find-a-Grave and finally signed up so I could suggest some edits. One of suggestions I made connected my mother to her parents…

Finding DNA Connections

I’m trying to do more than just make sure my mom’s research doesn’t go to waste. I’m also trying to take that to the next level. And these days, that means DNA matching. My first test was a medical one. My mom had cancer, and she had some kind of…

What Can You Say?

I wrote a short bio for my mother. FINALLY. It’s been so hard to figure out what to say about her, but after spending a week or more writing bios for family members I never met, I finally found some words. I won’t say it’s finished, but it’s there now….

One Tree to Rule them All

I discovered WikiTree! I’ve been working on a lot of family tree websites. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a website attempt to make ONE tree for everyone, but it’s the best I’ve seen so far. I love the community nature of this website. There are active people who…

The Good Daughter

I’m getting a lot of clues and hints from websites like Ancestry and MyHeritage. They make this family tree TOO easy to create. How easy you may ask? Well, I get so excited clicking to add new people that somehow I end up with a family of clones. Or at…

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