I Found It!!

I found the book! It wasn't in the box I was thinking it might be in. In fact, I didn't even get to that box. I thought it might be in Zach's box of mission stuff, but that was behind another box, so I looked in the first box, not there. Tried pulling out his mission box, but it was too tall and I couldn't get it. On a whim I saw a box labeled "books" and looked in it. It was full of photo albums, but at the end, perpendicular to the albums was a manila folder. Jackpot!! I have briefly skimmed a couple highlighted things. Now I just need to sit down and read it. One of the highlighted things is that we descended from the Tathams. I remember finding Tathams not too far back when I did my research in college. Now only if I could find those papers or rediscover those ancestors. Once again, wish me luck!

Nothing

Nothing. That is exactly what I have done with my genealogy. I was so excited to go home and talk to my Grandma about her family, but when I went home, we were so busy I didn't get much of a chance, and the two times we went down to see her, I chickened out. Her mother passed away last year, her son three years ago, and her husband quite awhile ago, but she is what I would call "emotionally fragile." I'm afraid to talk to her about those three people because I'm afraid it would upset her.

We had an open discussion in our Family History class this past week and I asked for advice. I think I will talk to Grandma about her life. I will start with her childhood; what it was like growing up in the area and time that she did, and work my way forward. I want to record her stories and then transcribe them word for word so they are truly her stories. The only problem with this is getting over there to do it. I might be able to rope my mom into helping me, and maybe I could be on the phone so I could have some input too. I'm not sure how I will work out the technicalities of it, but I'll figure it out.

I finally got my butt in gear and emailed two people about my maternal grandfather's family tree. I emailed them on Sunday and am waiting to hear back from either one. I really really hope I get a reply. I also have an idea of a box where the missing "book" might be, but I'm afraid to look because I'll probably just be disappointed. Keep your fingers crossed for me on both accounts; the emails and the book search.

Introduction

I have been interested in my family tree for quite some time. I guess it started with being interested about stories of my maternal grandpa. We were very close, but he passed away while I was very young, so I was not able to hear his stories directly from him.

Lately, I have gotten more and more interested in researching my genalogy. I traced a few generations for a project/paper in a history class while I was in college, and of course, now I can't find any of that information or the paper I wrote. Also, my mom copied a book of my Great Aunt's that has quite a bit of history of my grandfather's family tree. I have moved that copied book so many times, trying to find a good home for it until I finally started doing some family history work. I just moved it a week or two before they started a Family History Class at church, and now I can't find it anywhere! How frustrating is that? It's been under foot for years and now that I am ready for it, it's lost! I would go tear apart all the boxes in the garage but a pregnant woman on a rickety ladder is not a good idea. So despite enjoying class each week I have been a bit discouraged since I can't find the resources I have, and my family lives six hours away, so I can't gather the resources they have either until I can get over there. I just want to spend hours on the phone with Mom, but I know it would be much easier to wait until I can talk to my Grandma and Great Aunt in person.

Today in church we talked about sources for information in my FH class, then the third block was about FH as well. One sister read her first entry from her FH blog that explained how she got in to genalogy work and that is where the idea for this blog came from. Hopefully it will motivate me to keep working, keep searching, and keep reporting. The stories shared during that thrid hour were inspirational. They always make me want to work harder and have experiences like that. One brother commented on similar feelings, but added that those sotries weren't his stories. He then went on to say that we can each have our own if we are willing to put forth the effort. I really liked his quote, and it's the one at the top of the page. I feel like it has a double meaning. On one hand it means we can each have these wonderful experiences of finding information, being lead or directed and things just working out miraculously. On the other hand, it seems to say that as we fill in all these blanks in our family history and find out about our ancestry, we are writing our story of who we are.

So come with me as I dig into my past, on my mother's side. I'm not sure how often I will post, or if this will be a successful blog for me. I hope that I get my tush in gear, but being the mom to a toddler with another baby on the way, I may get distracted, or fall asleep at the keyboard. But with any luck, each new discovery will reenergize me enough to get to the next and I will keep on truckin'. And like Brother W said, "With a little bit of work, we each can have our own story."