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.....

My DNA Test results were........

So Ancestry.Com did send me a DNA kit.  I was so excited.  Here is what the kit looks like. 

Inside this little packet is a vial that you spit into.  Kind of gross!  Then you cap it up and send it back and in 6 to 8 weeks you are told what your DNA tells about your ethnic heritage.

Here is everything ready to be sent out.  And then it was wait,wait, wait.  I've used Ancestry.com for years for my research but never actually put my family tree on line.  So while I waited.. and waited... I started to put my information on line.  Wow!  It is amazing how much you can put together when you use their website.  Now I have all the census records, birth records, and grave records all attached.  I've spent quiet a few hours on the website while waiting.
Finally the results came in and ....well.... I'm a pretty boring person when it comes to DNA heritage.... I'm half British Isles and half Scandinavian.... No Native American, my grandma was wrong.  Though I could have told anyone that as I do have over 8000 names in my data base.  I now want to have either my daughters DNA done or my husbands.   I know he has a lot more diverse ancestry.
It is still totally cool!  If you have the extra money you should do it! 

I was sure.........

I was sure when I was a child that when I grew up I would be a horse.  I knew to my core that I was supposed to be a horse, I was absolutely positively sure!

I was sure when I was a teen and finally realized that I would not become a horse that I would work with horses my whole life.  As they were my whole life then.  I would not, no never ever get married and have children.  I was sure!

I was sure when I got married that my husband and I would live forever together in New Jersey.  My husband would never, no never ever leave New Jersey.  I was sure!

I was sure that when we bought this half a house.  Despite what all others said, that my husband and I would live here until our dying days.  I was positively, absolutely sure, we would never, not ever move from here.  I never dared dream of anything more...  I was sure!

I was sure when I got my library assistant job that I would have this job for years to come.  I would be here in this comfortable place till I retired.  I was sure I would never, not ever change jobs again.  I was sure!

I am sure now that the only thing you can be sure of is that what ever you are sure of will not stay but will change!  I'm absolutely positively sure that change occurs!

 If you ask me about anything else I'll now say I'm not sure.  Because life is just one change after another.  I have no ability to be sure anymore... Or at least for today.

Painters Wanted..... Photo's of our new house!

Here is the front of our new house.  My daughter and I went over today and got really lost trying to find the house because I decided to drive over the mountain rather than taking the highway.  See the bush by the door.  That was my first project.  I had to clip it, as it had grown so big it was covering the front door.

Here is the entry foyer.  I really like this.  I have some good ideas for what I'm going to put here.  All shoes will now be taken off when entering the house!

Here is the view of the house from the foyer.  I love all the wood flooring, even though it's the fake wood flooring.  I like the paint color for these rooms.  My husband and I have been discussing doing light paint colors though and making the house have a beach house feel.

This is a photo of the upstairs living area.  Going to be looking for a nice area rug for this room.  I'll have to check out and see what Kohl's has!

Here is a view of the dining/kitchen area.  I like all the light that comes into the house!  I think I might want to get a different light for over the dining area.  I'd like something with a stained glass look.  I'm sure my husband will agree with that.

Here is the master bedroom.  We want to paint this the same color as our bedroom in New Jersey.  White Beet.

This is the view from inside the Master Bedroom.  I get a big closet :)  We also have our own bathroom!

Here is what will be my Son's room.  The upstairs bed rooms are small.  I picture him having a loft bed so he has lots of room on his floor to do stuff.  Of course we really need to paint this room.  Bright green with flowers yuck!

The future office/guest room.  Again we need some paint in here as soon as possible!

The finished basement from the stairs.  My daughter is trying to get out of the photo.  She had so much fun down here today.  Mom its so big I can do cartwheels!

The view from the opposite side of the basement.

More of the basement the door goes into the area where the two bedrooms are.  Lots of space down here for watching TV, doing Karate and setting up Lego towns and Train layouts!

Bedroom 1 in the basement.  This must have been a play room.  Needs some paint!  They even painted the ceiling that blue color!  Ugh!

Bedroom two.  This is the room my daughter wants!  It actually has a normal color.

another view of her new room.  Doesn't she look happy.

Well do you have any paint opinions?

Here is the view from the back yard.  The town or the town house complex in the neighborhood is supposed to clip the hedges.  I hope they do it soon.  I hate hedges!  At our old house I pulled them all out and planted a nice garden.  I guess these really don't belong to me so I can't do that.  Hope you enjoyed our house tour.  We have all our stuff from storage out at the house now.  Even had neighbors come out and help.  One is a big Family History person so we had a great chat!

Dear Ancestry.com : Please choose me for DNA Testing!

I have been working on family history for at least 10 years now.  I love when I find photo's of the people I'm researching.  I love reading about what life might have been like for them.  One thing that I would love to take part in is Ancestry.com's DNA project.  I would love to see how my DNA connects to others.

As I think about the prospect of having my DNA added to this data base they are making I actually would like to also have my children's DNA taken too.  This way I could see not only my families DNA connections but my husbands too.

From what I have found my husbands family is English, Irish, German and Slovak.

My ancestry is Scottish, Irish, English and then on my grandmothers side there is a possibility of Native American ancestry too. 

There is an unknown parent in my grandmothers line, and perhaps that is where she comes up thinking she was part native American.  But I would love to see what a DNA report would say to this.

So I'm very much hoping to hear from Ancestry.com that they have room to test my DNA. 

I have found a great author who's books I'm devouring right now.  The name of the author is Susanna Kearsley and the two books I've read so far are " The Winter Sea"  And  "The Rose Garden."  I'm now reading her book "Mariana"  They are all historical fiction books that take place in Scotland, and England.  "The Winter Sea"  Takes place in Scotland near to where my ancestors lived.  It was interesting to read about their time period and what life was like for them.   The book I've just started reading takes place in England.  Actually in the same area where my ancestors are from and one of the characters has the same last name as my ancestors.  What I like is that one character is sent to live with her relatives because the rest of her family died of the plague.  Right now I'm working on one of my husbands family lines and found one of his ancestors who died of the plague.  Yes right now I'm way back in the 1600's. 
I have found it very odd that as I connect families, someone in 2007 from my church had pulled the information for these people and put it into the church system as a church family history project.  Now I'm slowly pulling the names that they put into the system and connecting them into families.  It is interesting to see how all the work is coming together.  Some days it is hard for me to stay away from my computer and do other work.
Well it looks like we are down to the last few weeks before we move to our new home.  Seems like everything is in order.  I'm amazed at by how inexpensive the bills are for our new house.  I'm excited by the prospect of having a family history office.  I really can't wait to have more space for everyone.  My daughter is packing up stuff as I type!  I think she will be glad to have a room to call her own.
So any ways I'm on a waiting list to have my DNA tested for Ancestry.com.  When and if it happens I will let you know.  I really really hope that it happens this year! 
G.G.

Welcome to my garage....

We are now under contract to buy this house in Lehi.  It is a true new Utah home..."Welcome to my garage.  I like that I have garden space right in the front.  The window is the kitchen window.  You walk into a nice little foyer.  Perfect for our little bench that was given to us years ago that sat in our attic.

Here is a photo of part of the kitchen.  I like the color scheme for most of the house.  There are only a few rooms that we will repaint.  There is a pantry on the opposite side of the kitchen.  It's small but I like that.

Here is a view of the kitchen and dining area.  My husband likes this type of table.  I think we sell these at work, so perhaps when there is a good sale going on we will get this type of table.  I like that the floors are not carpeted.  And the windows with all the light.

This is the upstairs formal living room area, right next to the dining area.  Again i love all the windows and light that we will get.  The door goes to the back yard.

The other wall of the upstairs living room.  I like the color's of this room.  It will be empty for awhile as we do not have any living room furnature.  Perhaps I can find a nice rug at work too.

This is the master bedroom.  This photo does not give you much to go by.  We will most likely paint this room a different color.

This is part of the finished basement.  It also doesn't give you a good idea of how big it is.  It is a lot bigger and has two bedrooms down there too.  My daughter wants a basement bedroom.

Here is the back deck.  I hope that someday we can make it a sceened in porch.  Then Kitty could go out on it too.

Sandy, Riverton, Lehi....OH MY!

Sandy.... Sandy is where we live in the apartments.  Sandy is where we had wanted to find a house.  Most of my first home hunting photo's were houses in Sandy.  What I've learned is houses in Sandy are expensive.  I don't know why but they are.  This is a very nice house in Sandy near where we live.  The asking price is $274,987.   A bit over what we would like to spend.  It's a cute house and I'm sure we could fit all our dreams in here, but I don't want to be house poor.  The houses we could afford in Sandy, well they were old and needed work.  And really I've done that already, and really don't want to do it again.  Plus they were not near where we wanted to be, and the children would still have to change schools and their new friends would not be able to walk over to the house. 

Riverton.... Next I looked at houses in Riverton.  I wouldn't have minded living in Riverton as it's near where I work.  This huge house actually was in our price range, but it has absolutely no yard.  That's how new houses are built out here... Big house, little itty bitty yard.  I actually did not walk through this house.  Other houses in Riverton were a little old.  Or they needed work or were not big enough for the dream.  Also the housing market out here is moving fast.  I'd see a house we'd try to schedule a time to see the house and it would already be under contract.  I think in the last two weeks I've looked at 16 houses.  My husband has been brought out to see three.

This house is in West Jordan.  I haven't actually gone out to look at a house there yet...  This is the newest type of development.  These houses look cute don't they, but again you are so close to your neighbors.  You look out the window and see what's for dinner next door.  I just didn't like that.

Here is the back of the house.  Just a little too close for me.  There has got to be some balance somewhere!

Lehi Oh My!... We wouldn't mind living in Lehi, as my husbands friends live very close by. This house was really pretty cute.  The one thing I didn't like was that the garage was right next to the living room, and so the inside entrance brought you into the living room.  The carpet there was light colored.  My husband wouldn't want to be out working on the loud car right near the living room.  This was also a tri-level house and he really doesn't like them either.  It was also close to all the neighbors.

Here is another cute house in Lehi.  It was a little on the small side for us.  Again it had the different levels and my husband doesn't like that type of floor plan.  It did have a nice yard, the neighborhood seemed nice, though I think there was one questionable house. 

This house in Lehi has potential.  Don't think that this is a small house.  It has a lot of space.  It is a corner lot so we wouldn't have neighbors surrounding us, it backs up to a road, but not a main road.  It is fenced in.  And it is in our price range.  Across the street is farm land.  So this is a house we are thinking about. I'll share more sometime this week.  Wish us luck on our house hunt. Oh so this house has the same space inside the house and size yard as the house at the top.  Yet this house is about $50,000. less.  This house I think might be newer too. It is deffenitely a "Welcome To My Garage home.  But the door from the garage to the house goes into a cute entry way.  Much better for all.
G.G.