My family and I went to church together this past Sunday. This is not a common thing in our household. My husband is a new member of the Unitarian Church, I have been a lifelong member of an Episcopal Church in town, and neither of us are super-diligent about attending either church regularly.
Regardless, we did make it this past Sunday, and I’m glad. The service was about remembering and acknowledging your ancestry. It was a well-timed theme, given that many of us in the congregation were likely to still have family in town for the holidays. The service sparked something in my husband and from the moment we got home from our post-church brunch, he tucked himself away in the office. After multiple interruptions of his parents’ enjoyment of various football games to inquire about a great-great grandpa’s education, or a long-lost Aunt’s birthplace, I wandered into the office to see what was going on.
Apparently, he had begun to compile our son’s genealogy tree on ancestry.com. Curious about what my husband had discovered, and then jealous that the Harding branch was well outlined on my son’s family tree and the Barnes’ side was missing, I too, set to filling in the blanks. I pulled out old documents that my deceased grandma had given me years ago, I called my mom and asked her about relatives I’ve never considered, and began to learn more and more about where I come from.
As I mentioned, we used the site ancestry.com to help us fill in our family tree. It’s not the most intuitive site to use, but the basic functions on it are free, and it allows you to assign several family members as editors, making additions to the tree easier. The coolest feature is that ancestry.com will consult other members’ trees and help you with hints on relatives on your own tree, sometimes providing biographical information, and sometimes leading you to additional relatives.
In addition to giving my husband and me an opportunity to talk with relatives that we haven’t spoken to in awhile and learning interesting tidbits about illegitimate children and military service of our ancestors (I found discharge papers for my great-great-great-etc.-grandfather from the Civil War), it’s also an incredible gift to give to my son(s). We still have several limbs of the tree to fill in, and there is SO MUCH information out there, but I encourage you to explore and create your a family tree for your child. This is a great time to start working on it. Over the holidays, you’ll have some great conversation ammunition when seated next to a relative at the dining table you haven’t talked to in awhile!
**SIDE NOTE: Please send a vote to: http://www.topmommyblogs.com/ today. They’ve reset the counters and our blog is no longer visible. Thanks so much!
Leave a Reply