I won!
3 December 2003, 5:08 PM

Geneology Newbie Musings
3 December 2003, 3:46 PM

A few years ago the genealogy bug started nibbling at my toes. Since then I've been slowly gathering and organizing what I already have, based on photo albums, parents memory and baby books and some Internet digging. It hasn't gotten me very far (well, in comparison to folks who've been doing this for a long time) but it's been fun and enlightening, nevertheless.

So what do I know at this point? I have names of my immediate ancestors on both sides of my family going back to my great-grandparents. Until I can find some marriage records, birth-dates and parents of those great-grandparents I'm kinda stuck at that point. In the meantime, I'm filling the tree out sideways - noting all the living and recently passed relatives on both sides. (All the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) That'll keep me busy for a while.

But it's the direct line backward that fascinates me most. It probably comes from the same thing that makes my toes curl when I learn about pre-historic paleo-peoples in archeology. Historical areas are nifty too, but I'm just awed and thrilled when I encounter knowledge about 5,000 year old human remains.

And so it is with my genealogy wanderings. It's all cool and neat to know those relations that I've shared the 20th century with. But as soon as I cross over the millennial line at 1900 and I find myself looking at ancestors that were part of the 19th century I get little thrills. The farther I am able to go back, the more excited I'm going to get.

And I have a feeling I'm going to get very, very excited. Going backward on may Finnish side may not be that difficult, once I can establish links to some 19th century names in parish records. The parish records of births, deaths and marriages in Finland go back to the 1500's and I'm positively giddy at the prospect of locating my ancestors back that far.

The Pakistani/Indian side may be more challenging, since record keeping is not so structured or obvious to me. I need to start mining my relatives collective knowledge now, before more of the older generation disappears. I'm so sad that I didn't start this sort of stuff in my late teens, when my grandmothers and many grand aunts and uncles were alive.

Still, better late than never. And what have I learned about my direct line so far?

Gingerbread Men With Attitude
3 December 2003, 2:44 PM