Genealogy and Me

While growing up, I always loved the stories my Mom told from her youth in Dayton, Ohio. The Depression, World War 2, and her family. It was like a totally different world from where I was - a small coastal town in California. I wish I had paid attention more. I thought I had, but as age creeps up on me, I have forgotten the names of people and places.

Mom did a good job keeping up with her side of the family's genealogy. Back then, they were written in the Bibles and you believed it. Now I find, that on Ancestry, many of the dates are wrong. Back then, many gave birth at home and would get a provisional birth certificate, in order to attend public school. You would see Grandmas and Moms walking up to the school, their arms full, carrying the Holy Bible, with names and dates of everyone in the family.

Mom knew a lot about her Mom's family. However, it was her father's family that she always wanted to know more about.

I, on the other hand, was fascinated with my father's side of the family, having been told, we had a good portion of Cherokee in our blood. I only wanted to know about that. No one had any good information back then. When these genealogy sites started on the Internet, I joined.

Of course, I started with my father's side and ran into so many walls. I gave up for a while.

Then I started my mom's side of the family. Her mysterious father and his family became my obsession.

In 2008, my mom committed suicide. To fill my days, of grief, I got back into genealogy and began searching for the answers my mom never got.

Boy, did I find them!