Fascinating Connections through DNA

When my friend read about our recent AncestryDNA results, she mentioned how interesting it would be to see how many connections were made for someone who had well researched family tree. Being an adoptee, her research for her birth family has been a struggle. While my personal database still has much work to done on it, our online information at familysearch.org is the result of forty years of work. As mentioned in the last post our family tree database has not been placed on ancestry.com. Now that we are finally jumping into the DNA tool for advanced genealogy and family tree work, there are very few copies of my work for our family posted online. Finding DNA connections is fascinating and many of the people matching our results are found in my personal database. Viewing their family trees present some very similar links, but some have been totally different than our known ancestors.

Tasks to Be Done and Bucket List Accomplishments

Today is February 18, 2016, six weeks since my last post. One might wonder what I have been up to in all that time. Several genealogy tasks and bucket list items have been accomplished. The first major step was going through all the boxes of books and finding a place for them in our home. There are still five boxes holding books, but they are sorted and will move into the space that will come as I continue organizing our home. My mother had a huge collection of books and they were culled to those that had her name, a relative's name or a friend's name in them. Beyond those there were a few that out of curiosity will be read and then donated. Some books went to family members, friends and relatives. It feels so good to be past that task.

Genealogy Books and a Happy New Year

It has been two months since my last post. During that time my focus has been on genealogy books. Our local society, the Genealogical Forum of Oregon, had a book sale that was irresistible. The email announcement notifying of a sale of 50% off the list price certainly caught my attention. The accessible list of books in PDF format was 41 pages. When I finally got around to looking at the list I was up most of the night. Using a copy and paste system a list of 42 books, some multiple sets, was created as a word document.

Thankful for Family History

Family History is significant to so many people. The three most recent projects to fill my time revealed wonderful connections. Two have Native American roots. Two also have history that occurred very near to our new to us home. It takes hours compiling a family history from online resources, and yet that is only the beginning of understanding those families. Viewing pedigree charts that show five generations of basic information we ponder about the families each of those couples represent. Generations pass away and the descendants represent even more families.

Celebrating Life and Family Reunions

Today is my mother's 82nd birthday and she has been gone for over two years. So much has happened in those two years that I am still trying to recover. This year we sold her home, bought a new to us home and are in the process of selling our home from before. Each step of the way there is always the thought that I should call my mother as she would enjoy knowing about the changes. My children say she already knows and is keeping track. This spring my mother-in-law passed away, so we adapt once more to having a loved in a better place. The older one becomes the shorter this life seems to be. While children, grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren seem to extend the joy we know, in the end we will all pass on to the better place.

ICAPGen Renewal - My Activities

Tonight there is a new page on this blog, ICAPGen Renewal Report 2015. This is not a perfect submission, but it is something that may help others in report writing. Below is the letter submitted covering my genealogy activities over the last five years. It has been an amazing ride and looking back is helpful in seeing where to go in the future. The serenditpity for me is that this is still something that I have a passion for doing. If you have ever considered applying for accreditation or certification, go for it! In the long run you will be a better genealogist and researcher.

Selling a House is like Having a Baby

Have you ever been involved in selling a house? We are currently selling our house and earlier this year we sold our mother's home. While this is something that has gone for ages, it always leads to surprise repercussions in the process. You may not have given birth, but there is some common ground in getting pregnant and preparing for a birth. Even with the six births of my children it seems like every time we survived the counting down of  months, days and finally the hours. The anticipation is amazing, but at the final few hours I often wanted just to forget about the birthing process. That is how it feels selling houses, you get almost to the point of exasperation and want to just stop the whole process.