I have been down the rabbit hole of genealogy for the last two weeks.
My biggest weak point with genealogy is that I poke around here and there, as I have time. I don’t have a regular focused time to work on the genealogy piece. So, I dive in and then I back up and then, several months or a year later, I dive back in again.
So, here I am in the thick of it again.
If you know something about genealogy, you might categorize some of the things I talk about today as rookie moves. I will admit, I am likely the most inconsistent person out there looking into their genealogy. I have dipped my pinky toe in and out of genealogy for about 11 years. And, truly, in 11 years. I don’t feel like I have gotten any further than my pinky toe. But, I know I have. It’s just that when I open the door to a new person, sometimes it gives me so many other people to think about! And then I have to take a break because I have other things tugging at my time.
It is only recently that I have thought about the extended family in a really big way. When I was a kid, I hung out a lot with my first cousins. And then, as family things often happen, there were some family disagreements and deaths and then I went away to college and, essentially, never moved back. I got married and we lived in Nebraska, nearer to my husband’s family. Then we moved a few times more. And, I was so busy doing life with my husband and kids that I didn’t really wonder about who was beyond that. Through the years, though, I have had some contact with second cousins on one side and a lot of contact with second cousins on another side. Sprinkle in an aunt and uncle and first cousins and, there you have it. It’s a bit of a mish mash. And for no great reason other than life has a way of moving you in a direction.
So, as it is in genealogy research, one thing leads to another. I am not the one who always pays attention to details, but when I logged into Family Search the other day, I noticed that my brother and I were both listed as deceased. It came as a surprise to me, of course. I fixed those and sent a message who had put that in there. He was very apologetic about the mistake. He even thinks we are related through marriage on my dad’s side of the family. I think it was an honest mistake – and maybe a rookie mistake. I am sure I make plenty of my own! But, you know, it was an unwelcomed step in the process. Here I am looking for great-great grandparents (and their siblings, etc) and I get stuck trying to straighten out the details of my own life. Thankfully, I was able to message the guy and he messaged back and was very apologetic about the mistake.
Anyway, I think the hardest thing for me in this research is staying focused on one branch. I feel this immense pressure to connect with the ones who are still alive. But I don’t have relationships or even know everyone out there. So, I am going to start in a small circle and branch out from there.
Some of the challenges I have run into –
Challenge number 1: I have both an ancestry account and a family search account and a my heritage account. The trees are not identical, so I run back and forth between the three. That is something I need to solve. This leads to Challenge number 2:
Challenge number 2: I need a home base for my family tree so I am only working on my part and then I can update the other sites. And, while I love having things on a genealogy website, I want it in my physical possession, too. Websites go down, computers die. I will want the info printed from time to time. So, I bought family tree maker. I haven’t done anything with it yet but I will. And soon. First, I need to catch my breath!
Challenge number 3: I have physical items and I have digital items. I have notes on the back of envelopes. Notes from my mom, in her handwriting. Documents. All kinds of things. I don’t want every physical thing I have to be digital....
