Little girl pulling at her dress was my mom :)
Well...I gave it a try. You see we are planning a trip to France and Italy. I have been a little curious about what areas in Italy my family is from. Oh my gosh! I am having a ball. I am finding out all sorts of interesting info. I have three towns in Italy I can actually document my grand father and two great grandfathers are from. One side of my Italian heritage is from Umbria and the other side is from Delle Fierie and Massa I Giorgio, Messina, Sicily. I have found out I have an English sea captain from what I thought was just French Canadian and Irish roots. It turns out one of my great great grandfather is from Yorkshire, England. Wow, now I know why I adore England (Barbara!) I know both towns in County Cork, Ireland where my great great grandmother, and great grand father came from. And I now know where my French Canadian grandfather came from Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada.
With my immigrant background and grand parents all dead except one before I was born. (my little Italian Noni, who didn't speak English) I have been really clueless. My parents have both passed away so all this info is coming from Ancestry.com. What I am finding that is so exciting is that I am able to see the actually original documentation tracing all this back to boat passenger lists, censes, and even a pension for my great, great grandmother when she was a widow from her seafaring husband!
Now DH is requesting I do his family...
9 comments:
It seems to be a time of people discovering their family roots! I find it all very fascinating....
I have a great grandfather from Yorkshire...from the town of Halifax, to be exact.
When I discovered Ancestry.com I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I have been doing it since 2005 and it never ceases to amaze me. My English ancestors came from Yorkshire too and settled in Maryland then into Kentucky and I was able to find my husbands family even though his father was an orphan. I did like the Who Do You Think You are? series. Come join us for Sepia Saturday if you pull up some pictures you would like to share.
QMM
It's kind of fun, isn't it? I spent a few months (as long as my gift subscription lasted) working on my family tree. I discovered that John's family hales from Sweden and Scotland to include nobleman or two. My family crawled out from under a rock. I can't find anything past a couple of generations. Let us know how far back you can go.
I've watched Susan Sarandon's story and found that one very interesting.
What fun. I've done that in the past and have thoroughly enjoyed what I've found out as well.
Have FUN with it (but seems you already are!)
I wonder if its something about getting older, and having grandchildren that gets us so excited about learning about our roots. I love family history, but my dad did too, in fact wrote our family history. Sometimes we learn a little more about who we are along the way,
I watched one episode of 'Who do you think you are?'...and now had forgotten all about it. I shall check out the ancestry link...because I surely need another internet addiction! (Smile) Your research has definitely had interesting results...and so good to know all that before you head to Europe.
Enjoying what your doing sis. Keep up the good work!! ;)
It is addictive isn't it? My mom started working on my family tree when I was a teen...way back when you had to go to the library and reel through images that were not indexed at all. It took hours to find a single name. I researched my husband's family tree back in the 1980, when many things were indexed but still required reeling though film. Now days what took my mother years can be found in minutes! I know have our families back thirteen generation, and even know what color horse was owned in the 1700's.
When you go to your ancestors birth places, be prepared for a tear or two. It is incredibly moving.
Oh...and for fun, get a hold of the book "Collecting Dead Relatives"...it is hilarious!
QMM and Sara both from Yorkshire too. That was my biggest surprise so far.
TML Well thank you for the book suggestion. I am a total green horn at this. I can't believe you have gone back 13 generations. That is amazing. I will have to pay to get to documents in other countries on this search engine. Which I will do when I have some more time to work on it in the fall, but I can't imagine finding that much.
I am currently now working on Dan's family. I would highly recommend the free trail to see how far you can get. You can set up the initial tree without joining, and then join and start looking up documents.
Good luck Sara!!!
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