Monday, October 22, 2012

Ancestry.com = a forest of family

As you know I love family, and I love working on Family History.  I love trees, and forest too.  Lately I haven't been blogging because I've been spending hours moving my family history information onto Ancestry.com.  I have spent about 12 years doing family history work.  I never put my family line on Ancestry.com.  So now that I've been putting on it's like "WOW!" 

I have been able to put my family names on the site and connect all the vital records to them.  It used to be that you could have the names on but you had to print out all the census records.  Now you can attach records right on the site.  I love to be able to do this.  Everything is on the computer and not cluttering up my whole house.  There are so many directions that I can go now with my family tree and so many possibilities opening up.  I feel as if I'm in a forest of family.  Isn't this a beautiful photo.  My aunt took this photo in Massachusetts and posted it on facebook.  I love paths in the forest
.Here is a path we used to walk daily in the summer at Dukes Island park in New Jersey.  I look at photo's like these and think where is this path taking me.  I think that way with my family history research too.  Where is this line taking me.  What joys and sorrows will I find in this family line?  I have had one contact now with someone with my same DNA and we have some common ancestors.  I have also had contact with a great aunt on my biological fathers side.  She has sent me photos of my Grandmother when she was a teenager.  They were so cool to see.  I'll put them on line sometime.
I don't know if I've told you this.  I come from a crazy family tree.  My parents divorced when I was in pre-school.  I've never known my biological father.  My stepfather adopted my brother and I when we were in high school as I always wanted to have a "Real" family.  Now  I search not only for my adoptive fathers family, but I've been collecting information on my biological fathers family too.  Why?  Because there are parts of me that come from them, and I wish to understand all of me.  Where does my crazy curly red hair come from?  Although I love my adoptive father very much, I still have this desire to see what my biological family was like.  It has been fun for me to collect all this information.  Lately have to tell myself to get off the computer and do some other types of work.  Family is so important to me though that I keep getting pulled back.  I've also felt good about the fact that now lots of other people will be able to look at and use the information I have.  If  you are into family history then I would highly recommend using Ancestry.com.  It is just one of the best websites that I have found!
Another favorite forest path.  We have a great bike path here in Utah.  My daughter and I took a 5 mile ride on it the other day.  I love being so close to the mountains and all the horse farms.  Our family is doing well out here.  We are all so busy.  We had our family photos taken this weekend so soon I'll share those.  Have a great week.  I'm off to play in the forest, well after I get the laundry started.....