I never really gave the relatives I didn’t know much thought. Then one day I typed Ancestry.com into my address bar and have thought about them ever since. I created a tree, clicked on all the little green leaves (hints), accepting them all, completing an incredibly massive tree. I read all of the facinating statistics and facts. Then I read them again and realized that a lot of them didn’t quite add up.
I deleted that tree, became obsessed with accurately and undeniably sourcing all information creating my next tree or not using it at all, became disorganized, disgruntled, disinterested and ended up deleting that tree as well.
Then I started over, created another tree, sourced well, and finally started digging in to the facts I was so careful to prove. Then one fact lead to another place, another time, another person, a neighbor, an unwed (Spinster, a legal term) barely documented Aunt, an employer, children that didn’t live long enough to make a census, and beyond Ancestry.com, to countless internet searches, to the family history library, public libraries, even Salt Lake City by chance, and finally to writing letters to strangers in faraway towns (and hamlets).
The whole hamlet thing is funny to me. Someday I am going to write a post all about hamlets and explain why.
And the most unexpected and rewarding part of all of this came along for the ride…. I kind of got to know some of these people. These people that I never met, most of whom died long before I was born, had stories just beyond the facts at hand.
I can’t really explain these relationships, I guess I don’t really have to, it’s a gift to me.
This is an “About Me” page, so what about me? I guess I’m digging myself up along the way as well.
diggingthemup 