Sunday, February 12, 2012

Picking up Breadcrumbs

A few years ago, my father handed me a flash drive with a copy of our family tree on it. I've dabbled in working on it, but there is already so much done. I never thought I'd be able to pick up on dead ends that my family was having. I set it aside.

Recently, we moved to Oklahoma so that I could be a stay at home mom. This gave me time to pursue my interests. One of them was that flash drive. In January, Dad was out for a visit and we went to the local family history library to get some information. I saw a sign asking for volunteers. I signed up. Since that time, I've managed to not only make huge strides in working on my step-mothers family tree, but make huge breakthroughs in my own family history. Some of the breakthroughs were things that I never thought I would have. Ever.

I decided to start a blog after listening to Lisa Louise Cooke's seminar on blog and podcasts at Rootstech 2012. Lisa runs the Genealogy Gems podcast, and she mentioned how much could be done, just by posting a blog and discussing my progress. So... here we are.

Since my parents worked so hard on our family history, I can't really say that I'm working on my family tree, since all of the obvious work has already been done. Right now, I feel like Hansel and Gretel wandering through the woods following a breadcrumb trail. I'm looking for the bits, pieces, hints and clues that will lead me to places that my parents never managed to reach. I'm gathering breadcrumbs by locating the documents to support the work that is already complete, and making sure that the work that has been done is accurate. Unfortunately this also means that a beginner at genealogy is working on projects at a much higher skill level than I now possess. I'm hoping that by logging my progress and trials, I can reach out to the genealogy community for help and guidance, but maybe some other poor sap in my situation will be able to learn from my dumb mistakes.

I'm sure there will be plenty to learn from.

6 comments:

  1. I'm so impressed that you embraced the challenge I made in the RootsTech presentation to blog. I wish you great success and hope it brings you many genealogy gems! Lisa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciated the challenge and all of the fabulous advice you've given. Seriously, I'm so excited! I think I screamed a little bit. It's rather embarrassing. In a good way though.

      Delete
  2. Welcome to the Blogging world. I look forward to your future posts about your journey.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw your blog listed at geneabloggers and I just wanted to say hi! I've enjoyed your posts so far. I was also inspired to start a(nother) family history blog after Rootstech this year. I have one already for a Maine branch of our family that is quite sad and neglected at the moment, but it's amazing the connections we've made with other relatives just by putting something out there on the internet. I'm hoping the same thing will happen with this new one.

    Kristiana
    (I can't seem to leave a comment with my fh blog, it's http://halifaxsilvers.wordpress.com)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd never even heard of rootstech before this year! It was so inspiring. So much to learn. Thank you for stopping by.

      Delete