Today I've added two Facebook Pages: 1) open, 2) the other closed (by invitation Only.
I'll be asking folks to browse around and let me know what features they Like or Don't Like, and what features they would like to see in the future. This is a bit slow but growing toward the top of my priority list.
It seems that when you are not located in proximity of family, you have a tendency to think about them less and less until they slip from importance all together. Our reconnections could, I suppose, result in Family Reunions at the most and just keeping in touch at the least. I would hope that keeping in touch would include an information exchange about family changes.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Sunday, January 25, 2015
The Linking of Ancentry and Forest of Families
I've been busy for months using Ancestry.com to trace family branches and twigs half way around the world. There have been significant discoveries. We're back into the 1600's and well into Europe. Family members have been instrumental in signing documents that transitioned New Hampshire from a colony to a state. We've run across interesting names that come close (but not yet connected) to those who played apart in our nation-building - names like "Lee" and "Benedict Arnold" and a few less well recognized.
We've gone from about 20 names in the first sitting to about 410 within 4 months. Members of the family that I haven't seen for years have become somewhat interested and likely interest will grow the more we know. Our tracking across the country has normally been using Canada as a gateway through New England and on across the continent to Oregon with stops in dozens of states along the way to add to the family - and migrate onward.
We've sent for our DNA results but it has not yet been completed, but we are excited that it's in the process.
It has been easier to get information about relatives that lived decades ago than it has been to cull the names and pictures and details of todays' relatives that we no longer interact with on a regular basis. We've become separated by time and distance as work and retirement have driven us apart. As a young man I met with family at informal reunions annually (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other family celebrations) I knew by cousins, was Godfather to some of my brothers children. We've drifted apart. The sad story is that the family seems not to have produced another person interested in genealogy except for a distant cousin retired now in Florida. We've tried to exchange information and that has worked a bit.
I seem to have developed a strategy: find connections first, collect documentation second, refine the relationships (parents, siblings, children) third, and keep records fourth. There will come a day that travel and visits to selected places and people will become essential to fill in the blanks.
Who knows were this will all lead. Who knows who will be the next excited relative.
I'll try to write more on this blog more often.
We've gone from about 20 names in the first sitting to about 410 within 4 months. Members of the family that I haven't seen for years have become somewhat interested and likely interest will grow the more we know. Our tracking across the country has normally been using Canada as a gateway through New England and on across the continent to Oregon with stops in dozens of states along the way to add to the family - and migrate onward.
We've sent for our DNA results but it has not yet been completed, but we are excited that it's in the process.
It has been easier to get information about relatives that lived decades ago than it has been to cull the names and pictures and details of todays' relatives that we no longer interact with on a regular basis. We've become separated by time and distance as work and retirement have driven us apart. As a young man I met with family at informal reunions annually (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other family celebrations) I knew by cousins, was Godfather to some of my brothers children. We've drifted apart. The sad story is that the family seems not to have produced another person interested in genealogy except for a distant cousin retired now in Florida. We've tried to exchange information and that has worked a bit.
I seem to have developed a strategy: find connections first, collect documentation second, refine the relationships (parents, siblings, children) third, and keep records fourth. There will come a day that travel and visits to selected places and people will become essential to fill in the blanks.
Who knows were this will all lead. Who knows who will be the next excited relative.
I'll try to write more on this blog more often.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Forest of Families - Seeds
Today we finished posting a set of significant family events - from February 1976 to today with some significant events even before that fresh beginning.
The is part of the Family "My Stories" that allows anyone in the Forest (kin and best friends and their families).
That's all for the moment - likely more tomorrow!
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