Genealogy Poem: Tracing My Tree
— Nana @ 5:47 am
For the past 15 or more years, I have been tracing our family trees. After we became grandparents, I became even more determined to gather as much family history as I could so I could pass it on to our grandchildren. Now, with the passing of their great-grandmother, I’m so very glad I did.
As a young grandaughter, myself, it never occurred to me to ask my grandmother about her life beyond what she offered. I never knew her parents had together almost 24 siblings and now it is almost impossible to trace their descendants.
It has been an exciting trip through time and history. To find an ancestor long forgotten and place him or her within an historical time period brings so much more meaning to the past. My family tree discoveries had even helped our children connect to what they had been learning in their social studies classes.
With most of my blood relatives deceased, except for one second cousin, I have had to rely mostly on Internet sources. Each time I thought I had come up against a “brick wall”, I would take time off from my search…until the next summer when I was on vacation. Then I would pick up where I left off and to my surprise I would find another clue or fact or document leading me further into the past. (more…)
