Here’s how I got involved. My grandfather, my father’s father, would not talk about his family or his upbringing or where everyone hailed from. His sister, my father’s aunt, was of the same mind. My curiosity, when they were alive, was heightened by their reticence in this area.
One gets busy as a teenager, then as a young adult making one’s way in the world, then as a newlywed and, as the Internet hadn’t yet been invented, my family history moved way to the back of my mind.
Once the Internet, and the then free-to-access (no longer!) fledgling Ancestry.com was available, I began a small work toward figuring out my heritage. Time, and the then lack of data left me with not much more than I had on paper, some 12-to-15 individuals. And there it sat for many years.
Upon retirement, I began work on writing the novel I had pretty much always felt I had inside, but after some months I began dabbling in the family tree using the free My Heritage application. Spurred on by my elder (by 12 years) brother, I began in earnest to try to find the horse thief who surely must have existed in my (father’s) family tree. I even subscribed for a year to their online services to more readily access documents I felt would aid in my search.
Well, here I am months later, with some 385 individuals in my tree, with 947 links to other folks’ trees, almost 200 supporting documents, and as far as my original quest—to find out what the big secret was—I am precisely where I started.
While in another branch I found a gambler and bookmaker, the answer I sought remains a mystery. I even found a thrice-wounded Confederate soldier who succumbed to his last wounds, so it’s not boring.
Meanwhile, most of the branching-off has been not in my genetic past, but in that of my brother’s current wife. Apparently, knowing one’s heritage is as important to her relatives as it was in biblical times.
That’s not why I began pushing this bolder up this hill, however, and I have decided to expend any future energies in this area toward my original pursuit. I am therefore no longer going to spend my time entering data and confirming matches on any branches not related to my own ancestors and those of my wife.
It turns out that this Genealogy thing can become a near-addiction. There’s always “just one more thing,” as Lieutenant Columbo used to say, which can then lead to another, then another, ad Infinitum.
Next year, if I can afford it, I will probably pay for a short whack at Ancestry.com just to see if any of their touted services can help me solve my own mystery. Wish me luck.
My father would never talk about his family. That and my interest in history lead me into genealogy. I have years of research and still have many unresolved mysteries to try and solved. I think you will find ancestry.com a wealth of information. But you have to work at it.
Charlie (Your photo looks like a Charlie.), I’ve been using My Heritage’s application and have subscribed to the MyHeritage.com service for a year. It has produced much data, and yes, it certainly is work, especially comparing my tree with others. It’s just that I’ve been getting buried in “matches” from trees only associated with my brother’s wife, so am cutting back, so-to-speak, in order to spend my time tracing my own family’s heritage. That wisdom, by the way, came from my brother who saw that, like Moses was being worn out, suggested I cease working on that particular branch. I think I’ll “follow your blog. It looks interesting! Thanks for commenting!
There’s a painting by Paul Gaugin that hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It’s inscribed Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? I’ve always found it useful for giving perspective to my own ancestral inquiries, since it reminds me that there are two other important questions to be answered besides the first?
Thanks, Peter, for your comment!
While my own heritage from my mother’s own research might be interesting, I know that my line started with Adam. Imagine that his own line started with God! And then imagine that my line gets shunted the minute I get born again: right back to God, because I’m a son of God. Then, after a million songs in heaven, all this will be forgotten.