Our Gene Pool project is a remarkable odyssey of the many branches of our family. This blog is my Family History Research Journal where I can track and organize my finds, uncover clues I’ve overlooked and share the story of my search.
I invite input and comments from family or other interested people.
Why this project?
Several years ago my daughter gave me a book “Grandmother’s Memories to her Grandchild”. It was a journal to complete, to share stories and family history and dreams. As I started that journey I realized how little I knew about my family history and had little or no relationships with family members nearby or living several states away. My parents separated when I was about six years old and I knew almost nothing about my father’s side of the family. I was born at the beginning of World War II and moved away from my home town around the third grade. Communication was sparse and my mother, a beautician, worked long hours to support the family. Family relationships were limited and before I knew it the years slipped by and I repeated the path of my mother. I chose nursing as a career and, looking back, realize that my most meaningful and close relationships were with the other health team members and my patients and their families.
During the past three years I’ve turned into an amateur genealogist. Avidly following any clues discovered in documents that tell the story of my unknown ancestors. I’ve also tried to understand them within the context of the times in which they lived, the challenges they faced and the traits they passed along to me. As I learned more about them they came alive for me and my attitude and understanding about my history changed. I began a serious study of the profession of genealogy and how to write a family history that would be of interest and value to other family members.
As I approach my seventy second birthday, my “Why” has evolved from just collecting names and dates to a bigger goal of leaving a legacy for my family that will give them understanding, acceptance, and even pride that they descend from a hardy stock and have inherited admirable traits that petty family estrangements and half truthful stories can’t erase.
I have accumulated boxes of document copies, photos, published histories of some family lines pre-dating the American Revolution. Thanks to genealogists that preceded me and the ever-growing computer access to old documents, newspapers, and regional histories, more information is available than most people would even want to read. In the process I hope to break down some walls like “where in Ireland did my maternal ancestors originate when they settled in Ontario, Canada in 1842?”
So I’m challenged with learning how to publish stories and digital memory photo layouts of family online so other interested and perhaps unknown family members can discover, appreciate and even add to the family history. If I’m very lucky some family rifts will be healed and relationships mended before I die.
