Comments on: WHY Are You Interested in Genealogy and Family History?

By: Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:27:15 +0000

“Cathy Hawinkels says:
August 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

I feel that our ancestors went through a lot of work and trouble to get us where we are today. No other generation will endure what they did. I want to preserve it for the young ones before all is lost. All our ancestors that suffered the trials of pioneering are dead or dying, and they will soon all be gone; I don’t want them to be forgotten.”

My thoughts exactly, Cathy! I want to make sure my kinds know who our ancestors are and appreciate what they did.

By: Judi Mendriski

Judi Mendriski — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:52:24 +0000

When I heard that my mother was dying, I needed to do something. I was at home recovering from an accident, so I had the time.

I decided to write down some memories. What started as a 2 pages of memories turned out to be a 20 page memorial. I, also, decided to start working on my family tree, to honor all my ancestors.

I included a family tree page, 2 poems, several paintings of mountains, 4 pages of memories of everyone. I made enough copies to give to friends and family.

By: L J

L J — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:52:28 +0000

When asked by someone about my surname. I would say that my Grandfather had 16 children and the oldest had 16 children and the rest had alot of children. So yes we are related. I asked my Father who his Grandfather was? He pointed out that his Grandfather lived in North Dakota. He thought that he had 2 or 3 wives. But was not sure.
My journey then began and it has been a very interesting voyage conversing with many cousins from all over the world. From my knowledge of 12 ancestors, I have a Family Tree of over 45,000 people. Thank you internet. So much to go over with so little time it seems to get it down.

Thank goodness for cousins who have freely shared there investigative work. Thanks for allowing me to share just a small portion of what I would like to share.

By: Iris

Iris — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:38:02 +0000

At the age of 10 my daugter asked me who she was. She has a half-Japanese father and was at the age that she knew what Japanese people looked like. She did not look like them. I told her a little about what my Mom had told me and asked my Mom, who had an interest herself in stories to send what she had to me for my daughter. Time passed and she never sent the stories. I finally realized that my daughter never got that questioned answered and it was up to me to answer that question. I started in 2007 because she was getting married. I thought, foolishly, that it would not take me long after all I had a computer to compile this information. Finally just last week (2011) I finish the research for now. All of us know it can be a lifetime hobby. My daughter helped by giving me a year on Ancestry and with that I was able to finish. I too say ask the questions NOW. We lost our last grandparent this year and will never know some things. It gets hard without my husbands support but I do what I can. I too like a good mystery and have solved some. I too found a few oops! that I refused to tell our grandmother (who was 99 at the time) about. I won’t leave it out in my notes but she just could not take that kind of bad news. Thank you for giving us a chance to tell our story.

By: Marilyn Davies

Marilyn Davies — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:45:46 +0000

Every time I hear Celtic music, it gives me such a homesick-type feeling. My Irish ancestors are quite elusive to me and I want to find them so badly. In 1981, my son and I went to Great Britain, went to Scotland, Wales, and of course London, but in those days the IRA was very active and we didn’t feel safe to get to Ireland. When we were in upper Scotland it was like the green isles were calling to me, but I had to stay where I was. I also have many other ancestors that are elusive, but for some reason my great g’ma, Adeliah Monahan, seems to be “pulling my strings.”

By: Nell

Nell — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:04:35 +0000

My maternal grandmother requested at her death that I keep the family together. At the time I didn’t know what she meant, but I’d always promised myself to do genealogy when I retired. I think my grandmother would be happy with the progress I’m making in keeping the family together as I have now contacted cousins who are excited to help me work on “our” family tree. I wish I’d have started earlier–at 60 I found out (through DNA) that the man on my birth certificate isn’t my biological father. Anyone who might have known the secret has died. Don’t wait–start asking questions NOW!

Our ancestors are grains of sand that has been mixed and molded into who we are.

By: T.G

T.G — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 01:00:47 +0000

I started doing genealogy about two years ago when I found my sister’s old school work about the family tree. I saw that there was a ton of info about my grandmother’s family but not much about my grandfather’s the little she did have said that my grandfather was of Hungarian descent.
When I started researching my grandfather’s family I found that he wasn’t of Hungarian descent but of Dutch descent. This made me realise that I wanted to know about where my ancestors came from.
2 years later and I have discovered that my ancestors came from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Swizterland and New Zealand and that I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne.
Another reason I started doing genealogical things were when I began learning Italian at school and I wondered if any of my ancestors were Italian. It took me a year to find them, but finally I found a man from Tuscany in the early 1700’s.
Now I am learning Italian, German an French mostly because of my genealogy research.
I am most proud of German heritage, my German ancestors were in the group of the first vinedressers in Australia.
I have been hooked ever since.

By: Barbara Butts-Harakal

Barbara Butts-Harakal — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:18:09 +0000

I started doing genealogy because I wanted to know more about my birth family and my Native American roots. At the time, I was adopted at the age of six and did not know much about the beginning of my life.

I finally got the courage to go to DCF in Connecticut to find my birth family. On February 14, 2006 I got back together with my birth mother and my dad’s sister. My dad’s sister was my Aunt Bernice. I started to tell her about my searching for my family history and she laughed because she and her husband, my uncle Ray were doing genealogy too. I guess what is in our genes does pass onto our offspring even when we have no contact much of their lives.

I learned so much from her and was hooked on this awesome hobby known as genealogy. I don’t work on my genealogy as much as I would like but I plan to finish it soon so that I can go and concentrate on getting my BCG certification and opening a business in which I can do this hobby for others. What better way to make money than to do what you love.

By: Ginny R

Ginny R — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:02:32 +0000

I started researching my roots to find out about my family history. My parents never spoke much about family, and for reasons I will never understand my parents did not communicate with most of the family. In learning my family history, I found one of my sisters sister had another father and I found the detective work to find the right information was exciting. Like finding parts of a puzzle. Much is left to find, but there is much already found. Now I would like to organize all the information that I have in a way that can be shared with my children and grandchildren.

By: Tina Krull

Tina Krull — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:02:39 +0000

I got into Genealogy because my husband is adopted and I was interested in finding his Birth family. Then Relized I didn’t know much about my own family History. Thank You Robert for your Dedication and Hard Work in helping all of us Genelogy Buffs.