Welcome to the Family

Read to the bottom for How to Use this Blog.

I have been exploring genealogy since I was little, listening to all the stories told by Aunts Connie and Helena, Cousins Ann and Howie and Maurietta, Uncles Leonard and Arthur. There were more dead people in the stories than live ones, and they were lots more fun. This was way before it was anyone's hobby, when I was the only one who was interested. Sneaking into the Archives underage and running around graveyards. I was lost to the present, either reading books about Pilgrims or building stories in my head. Always asking, asking, asking. "How is he related to us? Who is their mother? What was her name, and her name, and her name?" While Aunt Anna said, "I don't want to find out anyone was arrested for stealing sheep."

Now I find I know more stories about more people than anyone else. And I have more photos of other people's grandparents than anyone else, thanks to a mother who started taking pictures when the camera was invented and a grandmother who never threw out anything that crossed her threshold. I have a whole museum in my house.

So, to share with everyone whatever you want, as much or as little as you like, whenever you feel like looking, here is everything I know about "our" - and I use that word loosely - family. Hopefully in a medium suited to stay available a long long time.

One of our family pastimes is looking at photo albums. So enjoy!

How to use this blog:

If you find any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them!  My motto is, Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so that's how mistakes enter in. 

The menu - 3 horizontal lines - is in the upper right.  Click on that to see the pages, organized by topic, like Photos or Stories.  It also shows the titles of each post on each page in alphabetical order. 

Search - use to find a particular noun, like "Connie" or "Wendel" or "Churchover" or "World War I."  It will bring up all the posts that mention that.

To figure out which family is yours - Go to Menu. Click on Mom's Family Trees.  Pick the Family Pedigree Chart or Descendant Chart you think is best for you.   A pedigree chart starts with one person and just shows their ancestors.  A descendant chart starts with one couple and just shows their children.  If there are more ancestors or descendants on other charts, the Chart will tell you where to look. Siblings and cousins are mentioned in blogs, but I haven't put them in family trees yet, so your grandmother may not be in a chart.  If you can't find who you are looking for, please contact me and I will find them or add them.

To see where the posts fit in the space-time continuum - Go to Menu.  Click on Grampa's Timeline.  That will bring you to a comparison of historical events with what our people were doing at the time.

To find a post based on the date it was posted, go to Menu and then scroll down to Archive.

To find all posts on a topic, like Old Photos or Immigration, go to Menu and then scroll down to Labels. Click on Labels and then the topic you want.

To contact me, go to Menu and then scroll down to Profile.  Suggestions, questions, comments, send them all.

Pedigree Charts and Descendant Charts were all created using Ancestry.com.