Ten years ago, my cuz sent me a picture of my G'father who I only knew as when my mother spoke of him in passing as "my father this or my father that". I did not even know his name nor what he looked like until I got that picture. That started me on a quest that continues today. I store all my info on Legacy which half is free and downloadable. I paid $40 to open up the rest of it, but it has been so very well worth it as it contains so many features that I have not even tried out yet. I traced my family tree on my mother's side until I quickly reached a wall. Both my G'mother and G'G'Grandmother were both born in the late 1800's in AZ Terr. before it became a state. So the records were sparse. On my father's side, I traced back about five generations. His ancestors came from AZ and south of the border of Nogales. After my wife passed away, I found some papers that showed, she had been trying to trace her tree, so I started looking up her ancestors for my son and his daughter. I traced them back all the way to the early 1600's. Not landing on the Mayflower, but mebbe the second ship thereafter? One hundred years later, many settlers in Mass. decided to move to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Births, marriages and deaths were printed in the local newspaper. The editor of the paper in 1900 went back through all the papers and compiled a book of the families that had moved to Yarmouth. My wife's ancestors turned out to be quite extensive and fascinating. Her ancestors came from Fowey (pronounced Foy) England and I have yet to touch on that branch of the family. It goes back quite a ways. About the book of the families that moved to Yarmouth, it cost $100 on Amazon, but I got a great surprise when there was a copy of the Church of the Latter Day Saints Family Center. One does not have to be a member to access their libraries, that has books and maps and even computers that have free access to Ancestry, Family Search, Roots and several other web sites where one can look up ancestors from all over the world, veterans of wars and so much more. I can download pictures, records and documents. My searches have made me understand my family a lot more. I even found out I had a half-brother and from another branch a half-sister. A lot of people do not like genealogy because of the skeletons in the closet that can be found.
Playing like a detective, looking at dates I found out I was part of five living generations. More recently, I found out that it happened once again and I am the oldest of five living generations. So, I am a G'G'G' G'Paw. It is a fascinating world.
