1) Was there a
relative that was a big help in giving you family information? Who and
how was he/she helpful?
I told last week about my Dad helping me on that first
assignment in high school by taking me to the cemetery and pointing out various
family plots.
After completing the assignment, I wanted to continue and
learn more about the family. Nobody around me was really that interested in it.
My Mom did take me to a couple used bookstores looking for books to tell me
about genealogy. She also drove me a few places and helped me connect with a
couple cousins that share information, but her heart wasn’t in it.
However, one person in my family was interested and
encouraged me to continue. My oldest brother, Jim, lived near Washington, DC. I
would write letters asking him questions and he would give me what information
he had about older members of the family. Soon I was sending back information
that I had found and comparing notes with him. That interest and encouragement
went a long ways towards starting me down the path to genealogy as a lifetime
interest. Thank you Jim! (I know you’re reading this).
A few years later I “met” the other person that has been
really helpful. A quarrel when I was a child had caused my Mom and her brother
not to speak for a few years. While in college I ran into him and we got
reacquainted. This was also, when the two siblings finally spoke and made up
again. Kenneth also has an interest in genealogy and a passion for tracing our
family. Together we have worked on the maternal side of my lines.
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| Kenneth & Jim 1952 |
Through the years I have done more and more work on these
trees. I have done more research and gotten farther back than probably either
of them ever imagined we could find. In the beginning they were both teaching
me how to research and where to look for information. As I got more involved, I
joined societies and continued reading and studying genealogy. In recent years
I have been fortunate to be able to attend many different conferences and
institutes as well as webinars to learn even more. Now, I am the one that is
more skilled at it. However, we all enjoy sharing stuff between each other. It
is thanks to the help and encouragement of these two people, as well as many
others along the way that I got started on this hobby, career, obsession.
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