Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Addiction: Geneology

Back in college, we had a project to trace our family tree until we found who on each line came over to America. I found this task super fun, but SUPER difficult. I made it back at least 8 generations on most lines and still only found a couple "immigrants".

A couple years ago, I did the two week free trial of ancestry.com and filled in my tree a lot more in the time period.  I sort of put it on pause when the two weeks ended.

Flash forward to this year.  The township I live in is celebrating it's bicentennial and I'm on the committee for the celebration at my school.  I knew I had a great great grandpa who went to the one room schoolhouse that sits out front of the HS I teach at.  It was family legend but I hadn't found proof.  Well through visiting the historical society to prepare for the bicentennial, I confirmed he went to that school for at least 7 years. 

This family lived in the township I live in now.  Most of the kids went to the one room school house I was mentioning.  I definitely think the girls look brain dead, but I've seen pictures later in life to prove they actually look normal, lol

I also recently discovered historicalmapworks.com which is an AMAZING site.  It is easy to say my favorite thing to do is scour old maps trying to find family farms. I've found properties all over.  I always thought my mom's side was the "local farmers who have been here forever" but I'm finding lines on my dad's side that had farms super close to here.  Even he had no idea! 

The furthest back I can find any ancestor in America is 1635 so that's exciting. 

I have so much more exciting things to blog about but let's save more for the future. Just wanted to share my latest obsession in life!

everyone makes fun of me for thinking my great great grandpa was hot

1 comment:

Down On The Farm said...

I too really enjoy genealogy. I have a cousin who has traced my dad's family back to the mid 1800s when they traveled to the U.S. from Scotland. I have pictures of my great, great, great grandparents. They are buried less than a mile from my house. What history!! Blessings to you and your family from Missouri! May 2015 bring health and happiness!!