The very first person who encouraged me to find my ancestors was a young man who attended church with our family 25 years ago. I was interested but had two young daughters, no car, and there was no internet at the time. I asked my mother for information about her family and my father's family and she shared what she knew. I had a few names and fewer dates. This young man was headed to Salt Lake City for a few weeks and asked about my family's names. I gave him the information my mom had give me. While he was there he spent time at the Family History Library on my behalf and brought home a folder with family group sheets and documents to support the names on the sheets. There were 3 generations on one of my family lines and odd pieces of information on some others. I was excited but limited in what I could do. The folder went into a file drawer and stayed there till 2006 when I learned that working on family history was to be a major effort in my life. At that time I was most grateful to this young man for having documented the sources of the information he'd collected. What a good example he was.
In 2006 another gentleman became instrumental in helping me learn how to find my ancestors. He worked at the nearby Family History Center. It was a time when the full Ancestry.com was available at the FHC. He taught me about online searching, about census research, how to find other sources for information, about scanning photos, about flash drives, and much, much more. He also reinforced the necessity of recording sources and mentored me through my early efforts with PAF. Not only was he a genealogy buff, he was also a computer expert. His encouragement and example were instrumental in helping me consider the importance of an earnest effort to find my ancestors.
There have been others who have encouraged me along the way but these people have been the most memorable. Sometimes it's not my own life experiences, or the experiences of my ancestors, or the challenges in finding ancestors that bring the abundance. Sometimes it's the people I meet and interact with who provide a bounty of blessings
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This post was written to participate in Amy Coffin's 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy which is hosted on Geneabloggers. The theme will change weekly and may be posted any day of the week. This week's theme was life experiences. I invite you to join in if you'd like.
Well said Nancy. I did not get interested in my ancestors until late in my life. I am so grateful for the help from others; people in the FHC to a distant cousin who did our Kidgell line the long hard way years ago, today she is nearly blind. Renee
ReplyDeleteNancy,
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you don't consider yourself to be a techie -- just look at the quality of your blog! I agree that many of us are grateful to rootstech for being so willing to share information with those of us unable to attend. Says something about them.