On Genealogy

My sister and I started tracing our father's paternal ancestors in the early 1980s. At that time, we went to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and we looked through file cards to start the process. How times have changed! Now, most information is available on the internet, and with "Who Do You Think You Are?" and the availability of DNA testing, nearly everyone can start the process.

It is a long process. Believe me. With work, raising children and simply maintaining this thing called life, it took us about 20-25 years. Finally, my sister Jackie retired and she pursued the research full time. One of the problems she encountered was that first names were passed down through the generations, such as there are many Hans as a first name. That is the grandfather, the father, the son, the son's son -- then there were cousins named Hans -- and who in the world is who. This happened more than once. Hans, George, Philip....names that stump the researcher. Somehow, though, the puzzle was solved and we can be traced to the 1700s in Switzerland or Germany. I would like to continue on that line and see if I can go back further. I should have continued studying German in college! If I can prove any thing that I have sketched, I may be able to trace the line to the 1300s. That is remarkable. I really hope it does not take me 20-25 years to prove or disprove that.

I am going to start tracing our father's maternal side very soon. I have some sketches to start with and I know that her father does not have much to say, but her mother's side has much history, if it is true.

There is one thing I know for sure in researching and finding the stories, our lives are little different from our ancestors. We are the same today as yesterday and tomorrow, I believe we will continue to be the same. Our environment may change, our clothes may look different, our language may change, but we are the same, and we are all the same. All of us. It's a profound realization that took me many, many years to arrive at, but I do believe that.

Just a few weeks ago, Morgan Freeman narrated The Story of God series on National Geographic Channel. Very interesting episodes, but one in particular was extremely interesting to the genealogist -- man can be traced to one particular man in Africa a very, very long time ago.  And did you know that 1 in 200 men in the world are related to Genghis Khan, or 16 million people. That's a lot of people from one man!

I am going to be unavailable tomorrow, so I will sign off early for the weekend.

Until Monday...have a great weekend....