Family Roots - We all have them

We all originate from some place and its great to also discover these locations when talking with friends and relatives.    What is even better is finding out where someone has visited and what they liked about those locations.  Today, we can usually produce several pictures of locations visited, in a snap... but back in the 19th century, travel was a challenge and everyone had to have a vivid imagination to accompany the stories that were told over and again.   Images and details were left to specialists.

When it comes to our family roots, we must also tap into that imagination and explore the world that was before us.  You can start with doing the research yourself.   But like travel, that takes time, money, and frankly skill.   Some commercials may imply that you can sign up, log in and with a few clicks, you can find your family tree right away, but again some things are left to specialists.

Finding details on a paid subscription website can be great, but if not careful, you may end up chasing false leads, that eventually tell the wrong story.    What's worse is it get compounded by others if you publish those details.   That is why hiring a specialist with years of experience in genealogy can help save you time AND money.

If you are interested in finding out more about your family roots, I would suggest checking out Ancestral Family Roots.   They offer full service genealogy research and include many other services, such as your own family website, photo restoration, and more. 

All for now... your cousin with some imagination.

Get to know your Family Stories

If I asked you to tell me a story about your family, what story would you extol and who would be the center of that story?   Your parents, grandparents, or someone else?

Henry and Clara Sanders Family

The challenge with family stories is like fables and myths, they merge into the fabric of the past generations.  Over time, the story becomes filtered and tend to ameliorate the plot line and unfortunately, many stories get "lost", so we end up telling fewer of them.   

A story doesn't have to be moralistic or have a valiant outcome.   Today, we are all more hurried in our actions, work, eat, family time, sleep, repeat.   Our ancestors didn't have the same technology we do, so their family time was spent telling stories. 

The Phrenetic Phonetic Phoenician Nose

Most people may already know the meaning of their names, but did you know that many were (mis)spelled differently several generations ago?   

Take for example the name SANDERS.

Sanders is a patronymic surname derived from the given name "Sander," a medieval form of "Alexander." Alexander comes from the Greek name "Alexandros," meaning "defender of men" from Greek alexein "to defend, help" and aner "man."  source: about.com

Alexander the Great was widely respected and known throughout ancient times.  His name was used for cities across the lands he conquered from India to Egypt and Greece, with many still in existence today - over 2000 years later.  

SANDERS ranks as the 87th most popular name in the USA; the most popular surname is SMITH, followed by JOHNSON, according to the census of 2000.