Hit a Family Road Block? Take a Family History Trip

For those who have hit a road block in their research and exhausted their search on the internet as well as their immediate area, what do you do next?  

You take what I call a Family History Trip.

Details about your family are not going to come to you, although in the past decade, there have been incredible changes in this industry and information that previously would take months to get (if at all) is now at your fingertips.

The benefit of a Family History Trip are the new doors that will open as you uncover facts that you couldn't (or wouldn't) find online or easily through snail mail/email correspondence.   This type of trip is really not a last resort, but a critical step in the ongoing search for answers, especially when you reach a road block. 

How I got started in Family Genealogy

I am usually asked how I got started doing family genealogy and my quick answer is "I caught the genealogy bug".   This bug has been fairly virulent and hard to get rid of.  

As a child, I was a little bit different growing up (according to some sources, with questionable intent).  I had loving parents and grandparents and 2 younger brothers.  

How exactly I caught this "bug", can be traced back to about 1975, when I was 10-11 years old.    Fortunately, I was held back in kindergarten, because I couldn't color within the lines so in the fall of 1975, I was starting 5th grade.   At that time, we were living in North Dakota, which is VERY close to the north pole than most would think!

Like most 5th graders, my interests were diverse:  I liked riding motorcycles & snowmobiles, building forts, watching cartoons on Saturday, playing sports, astronomy, archeology, math and the general sciences.

My curiosity about my origins was also somewhat skewed, probably because my folks sometimes joked I was adopted, simply because I had blonde hair, and the rest of my family had dark hair.  Well I have no doubt I am my father and mothers son, but this might have had something to do with why I wanted to know more about "who I was". 


In the spring of 1976, we moved to Kentucky, where I finished 5th grade and started growing more interested in collections, like coins, stamps, and books.  We lived in Kentucky for more than a year and in the summer of 1977, we moved to Colorado.   

My "bug" was becoming more infectious, as I started interviewing my grandparents about my history.   I would write down questions, about each ancestor, and then do a regular interview with a living family member, while recording the interview.  Even today, the digital recorder is by far an invaluable tool to collecting stories about my past, and it helps when you are on the move, to have it on, because memories can often be triggered by something indirectly that you might miss.

By 1977, before personal computers, I had amassed a good deal of information on my families past, and was considering how to best put this into a format that would help people see it.  That same year, Roots came out: a TV mini-series about Alex Haley's family history and I was enthralled with the story and how he was able to trace his family back so far.   I had only traced my line back to the mid 1800's and the details about those grandparents were very sketchy at best.  

In the fall of 1977, I started 7th grade in Colorado and likely because of the Roots TV mini-series, one of my teachers had all of us do a family tree.   I couldn't wait to get started and worked on it for several days.  My "family tree" was hand written on butcher block paper showing all the connections, that ended up being 16 feet long, by 3 feet wide (and wider still with an extension in the middle).  I had over 300 names, going back 5 generations, with over 33 hand written double sided 8x11" biographies of each person.  I still have this family tree coiled up in my archives.  Needless to say, I was fully infected by the "bug" at this point.

Today, I still have that same passion to pursue my family roots.  It is very rewarding and certainly helps me understand more about who I am.  I also find a lot of my family through the wonders of technology, when they happen onto my website, at SandersFamilia.com.   In fact, I have made connections with 5th and 6th cousins through facebook even!

If you are interested in finding your own roots, you just need to be a little curious.   Ask questions about your family from those people in your family, such as your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  It is also important to record the stories about who your ancestors were, not just the dates, as they can help guide you.  Personally, I have many family stories that are part fact and part fiction, so it is up to you to determine the truth, but finding it is half the fun!

You may be the family genealogist in your family, and just don't know it yet.  If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me for advice through my website.  

Until the next post. 

Your likely cousin, a few times removed.
Brian

Did you say 4.3 billion people - are you sure?!?

One of my favorite movies is "Back to the Future" and one of my favorite scenes was when Doc Brown realizes the enormous power required to make the Time Machine work.   He starts getting really excited and repeating the amount of energy, or 1.21 gigawatts, while Marty asks what a gigawatt is.   

gig·a·watt/ˈgigəˌwät/ - A unit of electric power equal to one billion (109) watts.

 

Just like Doc Brown, I was really a bit concerned when I determined in my last post that I have nearly 4.3 billion ancestors, starting from 100 AD..  That just sounds a bit large, so I started looking closer at the numbers and the assumptions.  I kept getting the same number, and even better, the Population Reference Bureau, determined that around 100AD, the earths population was about 300 million.    Further still, the total number of people who have ever lived since the beginning of time, is only estimated to be about 108 billion!

So how is this so far off?    

Well, if we start with the assumed total of 300 million around 100 AD, that means we get about 28 generations.   But even that seems a bit small, since that means each generation is about 70 years, and that is a huge stretch and for now, I am going to look into this further, as something is off.


In showing this analysis, I hope the point hasn't been lost in the math.   While researching your family line, it is important to make assumptions about the story being told, but to be clear and document it in detail, for you to later review and or others to follow.   It is a good practice, to always annotate your sources, state your assumptions and keep clear notes for reference.   This helps others in the future, as well, and they can either confirm or refute what you published.   .
 
I hope my example was helpful and beneficial.  Stay tuned for more about the mystery of the "overpopulated" world in 100 AD.

Your cousin, Brian

Math & Genealogy - it does a family good!

If you were born on this planet, in the last 80,000 +/- a few years, you may not know it, but we are all pretty much the same.   In fact, we are 99.5% genetically the same..  And rather than bore you about the birds and bees, and genetics, let's talk about something really neat - math!   A subject we can all "relate" to in terms of genealogy and families.

The LIFE of EDGAR and JENNIE Foy - by Margie Wood

I am pleased to announce that after many years of preparation, The LIFE of EDGAR and JENNIE FOY is available in paperback, through LULU.com.

This is a biography about my great-grandparents, Edgar and Jennie Foy, told from the view of my grandmother, Margie Wood. They were Irish and German immigrants, who settled in the Midwest during the 1800's. It's compelling and rich in detail about the trials and tribulations, the successes and most importantly, the family.