52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1 (Jan. 1-10)
Prompt: Foundations
#52ancestors
What are the foundations of my genealogy research?
Everyone says to start with yourself and work backwards, but
I didn’t hear that for many years. So, I
skipped my parents and my grandparents.
I became interested in my family history while I was in high school while
all of my grandparents were alive for me to ask questions and talk to about
their lives. I didn’t ask enough questions. I didn’t write down all that they
told me, but they are the foundation of my research.
I said I skipped my grandparents because I didn’t verify any
of their information. I started doing actual research on their parents. Many years later, I did go back and find the
documentation for all of the facts that I already knew. I also found some
pieces of information that I did not know.
My maternal grandmother told me she had lived in one county in Oklahoma from
the time she was one year old until she married. But I couldn’t find her in the census records
when she was 5 years old. I did
eventually find her in a different county with her stepfather’s last name. She
did not know that when she was 5 that her mother had moved with her stepfather
to another county and then moved back.
When my mother decided to apply for Social Security, she needed
her birth certificate to apply. She
asked me how to get her birth certificate. I had to sheepishly admit that I had
a copy of it that she could use. It
saved her some time, and it was interesting watching her exam her birth
certificate for the first time.
I found new information on my other grandparents, nothing really surprising. However, I filled out the details of their lives. Start where you are the most interested, but some day go back and fill out the details, make the early connections, too.
My Grandparents
No comments:
Post a Comment