Well, I'll tell you why. The curiosity, plain and simple. There was always a belief that my great-great (gg) grandmother on my Dad's side was a "Lady." She always referred to herself that way, so maybe there was something to her personification. On my Mom's side, we are believed to have some Cherokee Indian blood. You wouldn't know it to look at my Mom or myself (we're very fair-skinned, with a definite lack of cheekbone definition), but Grandpa (James M. Jones) swore by the fact. Also, what really got us going was a phone call.
One day, I came home from work, and Mom told me we got a phone call from Carol Jones. Well, I have a cousin (Mom's niece) named Carol Jones. I didn't think much of the call since we see Carol fairly often. The surprise was that Mom wasn't referring to the Carol I was thinking of. She was referring to an unknown Carol Jones. Hmmmmmm..... Turns out, she's a cousin by a previously unknown great-uncle! How exciting! She has been doing research for years and finally came across Mom's information to contact her. I am so glad she did that because now I have a hobby that involves my brain.
Anyway, with that all said, I started looking into my family history. Here's what I knew for sure:
Grandparents
Great-Grandparents
Where everyone was from,
and, well... that was it.
Needless to say, this was a bit of an uphill battle but far from Mount Everest. I signed up for Ancestry.com with the 14 day free trial. Later that night, I got a phone call from them asking if I'd like full access to their site. I said "Sure! Why not?!"... yup... I'm a sucker. I'm glad I did it though. While Ancestry is an expensive site, it's very informative, and it gets better every year. The bad (besides cost), is that it doesn't eliminate the need for road trips, help from complete strangers, or both.
Without Ancestry, I would have given up almost as soon as I started. With that said, there's a good amount of information out there. I would assume that, since you're reading this, you have at least a basic idea of how the internet works. Since that's likely the case, I believe you will be able to find information on your own, but if not, feel free to ask me, and I'll either explain how to do the research, do it for you (if it's not TOO complicated), or offer advice on how to get the information needed. I am far from an expert, but considering I'm free, feel free to ask.
Now, since I'm still actively looking for ancestors, I must tell you my lines:
LAMB
LEWIS
JONES
PIGG
SEIFFER
PFEFFER
If anyone has ideas to work with on any of these lines, let me know. Also, if you have any questions about these lines, let me know. There's always the possibility we can help each other.
While this blog is going to be about my personal adventures, I want you to know that your adventures are mine. Let me know if I can be of help.
