My Passion!

My passion in life, besides my family and friends, of course, is genealogy.  I absolutely LOVE it!  I start doing research and totally lose track of time.  I’ve been known to stay up all night working on it, and I don’t even get tired because it infuses me with so much energy and excitement.  I don’t even care whose genealogy it is, mine or someone else’s. 

I was an only child, and my dad was in the military so we traveled a lot.  We never saw much of my mother’s family, and I never knew anyone in my dad’s family until long after I was married.  I always longed for siblings and more family.  I wanted to know about my mom’s family and my dad’s family.  I wanted to know more about my heritage.  My parents used to share wonderful stories with me of their years growing up, but I always wanted to know MORE. 

After I was married, I started asking my maternal grandmother questions about the family in my letters to her.  She was very willing to share information and old photos with me, and I immediately became hooked.  My husband worked with a man, Joe, who was compiling a history of his family, and he started asking Joe questions about how to do research for me.  There was a genealogy club that met during lunch hour at their place of employment, so my husband joined in order to get more information for me.  I will never forget our first excursion to the genealogy library at the Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They had all the U.S. census microfilms available there for you to search, and my first search was for my maternal great grandfather in the 1880 census.  I was so excited when I found him.  He actually existed!  He was no longer just a name and date on a piece of paper.  He was a real, living person, and I had a census record to prove it!  It still thrills me when I remember it even though that was over 40 years ago. 

Over the years, I have had so many fantastic experiences doing research.  I’ve met family members that I never even knew existed, and I’ve learned so much about my ancestors and my heritage.  Not only have I learned about my family, but I have learned many new skills because of this addiction that I have to genealogy.  I learned how to restore old photos so I could make the old photos I had look better.  I learned how to do calligraphy so I could make beautiful charts.  I learned how to do digital scrapbooking so I could create beautiful pages for a book that would include family photos and stories.  I’ve also learned to crochet and tat like my grandmother did, how to bake bread, can, and grow a garden the way my ancestors did, how to quilt like my great grandmother, and the list just grows and grows.

I have a favorite poem that I have done in calligraphy that is hanging in my home.  The first time I read it, it touched my heart and sent chills up my spine.  It’s called “Heredity”.

     Somebody labored years ago

            Whose name I do not even know

            Ploughed ground or sailed the open sea

            And loved a maid that I might be.

     Two centuries ago or more

            A woman at an English door

            Looked fondly at a lilac tree

            And passed that bit of pride to me.

     One stood enraptured when he heard

            The music of a singing bird,

            And now with each returning spring,

            I find I do the self-same thing.

     Could we untangle all our lives

            And learn how much in us survives,

            We might discover just how far

            Goes back what makes us as we are.

                              - Edgar A. Guest -

I was very fortunate to be able to go to Alabama in 1980 to meet many of my grandmother’s family members.  I visited the original family homestead from the mid-1800’s.  As I stood there on that beautiful spring day inhaling the wonderful fragrances of the wildflowers as a slight breeze rustled the leaves in the surrounding trees, I thought of that poem.  It was as if all those that had come before me were standing there with me, and I had a much better understanding of what makes me as I am. 

Do you ever wonder about your heritage?    Would you like to know more about your ancestors and the lives that they led?  I co-host a monthly chat at a digital scrapbooking site called Ivy Scraps.  The chat this month will be held this Thursday, April 28th, at 9 p.m. EDT.  It will go for one hour.  Jan, the other lady that hosts the chat, and I will be available to answer any questions you might have and to help you on your quest to learn more about your family.  We would love to have you join us.  You don’t have to be interested in digital scrapbooking to participate.  It’s for anyone who is interested in doing genealogy and at any level, from beginner to advanced.  Here is the web address:  http://www.ivyscraps.com/

There is a navigation bar at the top of the page that has separate tags for each area of the site.  Just click on the tag that says “Chat” on the far right, and you will be taken to the chat room.  I hope I will see some of you there.  I have to warn you, though.  Once bitten by the genealogy bug, you will be addicted for life with no cure available!