First of all as you know genealogy is another word meaning tracing your family back until you can go back no further. And who cares? Well maybe you don't care, maybe your parents don't care either but did you ever stop and think that maybe somewhere in the future your grandkids or great grandkids might want to know about who they are and where they came from? A person can make their family tree something exciting, something interesting, something that anybody would love to read. As you know, I started my family tree back in 1976 and I cannot thank my son enough for encouraging me to do so. It has been a long journey, I hit some brick walls, I tumbled some of them down, I looked for days even years and WOW! found what I was looking for, and the feeling I get when I stumble upon a new piece of the puzzle is unbelievable. My idea of a family tree is not just they were born,married and died, my idea is what did they do? What did they wear? Where did they live? Where can I find some little stories about them? The obituaries sometimes gives a lot of information so I look for the obits if I can find them. The 1861 census of Canada gives a lot of information, such as did they have a farm? What did they have on the farm, animals, crops, who was living with them at the time? I also found with the help of the historian Regis Brun a bill that my great grandfather had made, he used to go to the city from the country once a month and buy his groceries . Can you imagine a can of lobster for fifteen cents? Wish I were there back then. grin. This was in 1873 or around there. I searched for 30 years for the death of my great grandfather before finally finding him, can you imagine how excited I was? And one day I went to the funeral home with someone and I asked if they could find my grandfather's death record and they did a lookup and I found out my grandfather had Lupus. Now that is another reason doing a family tree is good because sometimes medical issues comes up and we wonder if anyone else had the same thing. Yes family trees can be very benificial. Where do you begin? Well I would say, get a pen and scribblers, or a tape recorder, start asking your parents a lot of questions, where they were born, who their parents were,what did their parents do for a living, places they lived, were the men ever in the armed forces, were there any heros or crooks in there somewhere? All these are facts and should be recorded. Now for example, my Mom married my Dad when she was barely 14, my grandfather was away, she was his oldest daughter ,his little princess and my father proposed to her, would you believe on a little bridge in the country and my Mom said yes and they first went to the city and eloped, and later they married catholic but my grandfather was away at the time,and when he returned and found out his daughter got married to a man older than her to begin with and who lived next door to them that one day or night he went over to my other grandparent's home and burned the house and barn while they were away. Had my mother not told me the story I would never have known and the true was true because my grandfather went to court and I found the article in the newspaper. So I have this information written down in my book, for my descendants to read one day. I would phone Mom and she would start talking about long ago and my memory is not as good or even as close to being as good as Moms, so as soon as I would hang up the phone , out came my pen and paper and I would jot the information down. Today there are lots of information online that can help you search ,just as long as you remember there are also lots of mistakes or errors online so if and when you find something, always, always verify it to see for yourself if it is correct. By reading this blog ,by now you must know that genealogy is in my blood, and it is something that will never go away. Right now I am searching for my English line from England who I recently found an item saying it is possible they were originally French Hugonots who fled to England. Hmmmmm interesting huh? So when are you going to start doing your family tree?
Changing the subject here are a few things I have created for Halloween ,you can find them in my Halloween folder at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*
