Good question! And I've got an answer:
My favorite hobby is genealogy, and I take great pleasure in researching and solving family mysteries. I have even dedicated some of my time to helping friends discover their roots as well. I am fascinated with history and enjoy learning how it effected the lives of individuals. I want to discover real people who actually once lived, laughed, cried, loved, worked, played, worried, feared, struggled and survived. I want to tell their life stories and preserve their memories.
So came about this ancestry blog. I really don't know what sparked the idea; I just know that it came to me as I was sitting on my living room couch the other day while watching Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC.
I first became interested in genealogy when my fourth grade english teacher assigned a report on our family tree. I was glad the report did not have to be lengthy, for I had--in my mind, at the time--a rather small family: a mother, a father, a sister, one surviving grandmother (maternal) and a few aunts, uncles and cousins.
I began with jotting down facts that I already knew before turning to my parents for the details I was a little sketchy on, such as dates and the sort, and--tell me again; who are Grandma Daisy and Aunt Goldie, and how am I related to them?
After I had finished picking my mother's brain, I then turned to my father.
It was such a simple, innocent question, really. What was Mere's real name? I was only expecting a simple, innocent answer. However, my father simply presented to me a yellowing paper. When I took it in my hands and began reading some of the details, my eyes lit up like Sean Austin's had in The Goonies when he had discovered his father's pirate treasure map. For that's what this was to me; my own personal treasure map starting me out on a journey full of adventure, discovery and treasures!
The aging paper I was holding in my hands depicted a family lineage that one of my great uncles had researched. Of course they were just names on a piece of paper, but I found it so fascinating to know actual names of people who lived in completely different times from my own, and yet whose blood were flowing through my veins. All the different family names, and the individual names who belonged to those families peaked my interest. They weren't life stories or anything you could turn into a Lifetime movie special, but they were a part of actual identities of individuals who, not only lived their own lives and had their own stories to tell, but also were individuals who were solely responsible for my existence. I had the knowledge of their names--their identities!--in my hands. Just as I am myself and I exist, so did they.
This is the original family tree filled out by my Great Uncle Louis,
Edith's brother (shown here as Louis F. Jacob, Jr.) I've come to learn
that some of the information is incorrect, but it was my start. It is
amazing how all the mounds of information I have gathered over the
years all stemmed from this one piece of paper! (Click to enlarge)
The icing on the cake at the time was that, on the sheet, there were tiny, tiny snippets into some of the lives of the individuals--a spark, if you will, that would ignite the fire of my investigation. There were all sorts of stories just begging for the details to be dished out: A lieutenant in the Confederate Army who married a girl from Cuba, whose parents owned a large plantation there, then disinherited her when she married; a California Gold Rush miner who struck it rich, only to lose it all when he registered his claim wrong! What exciting stuff!
I had always heard my classmates throughout the years state how they were Italian, or mixed Irish and German, or French and whatnot, and I had always hated not knowing which nationalities made up my blood. I had always wanted to know and I had always wanted to be proud of who I am and where my family came from. Now, it looked like I might be able to find out, and, to boot, I could know who my ancestors were, and what trials and tribulations they had to overcome so that I could come to exist.
I briefly dibbed into some research when I was in high school, but between my studies and all my many extra-curricular activities, there was not much time. I never seriously started my genealogical quest until about a few years ago, and have been hooked ever since. It is amazing what all I have discovered!
I don't think this quest will ever end. New answers will just spawn twice as many questions, but that's the fun of it!
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Once again, I invite all to comment on my entries. I would love to hear your feedback. And if you have any information that can shed a light on anything, please do not hesitate to comment or contact me. Should any of my readers have any questions, feel free to ask away. Connecting with others is one of the the beauties of being a genealogist!
