Genealogy --- Its Fun!!

With a new great grandson arriving in November 2010 I felt the need to provide some genealogy for him. When I was visiting Chad & Zoe in July in Salt Lake City, I offered to see what I could do to find Zoe's ancestors. Zoe said yes, she would be happy to have me do that. So we engaged a dialog that she had with her families and relayed to me to do some research. I started toward the last of July and it became an obsession to find more and more. By the middle of August I had pretty much completed Zoe's book.

It was fun to study the Italian immigrants and Polish immigrants that make up most of Zoe's ancestry. As I found them in the censuses in the larger cities where they settled, I could feel the atmosphere that these folks lived and worked in. The large families with multi generational members living together or near each other. I could almost smell the dishes being cooked and the heavy spices and garlic and onion. I could imagine the hard working men returning at night to a family filled with lots of children and parents and brothers and sisters. There surely was a bit of volatile emotion involved in these families. Of course, it was fun to find her colonial and Canadian ancestors as well. I found a Loyalist ancestor and a Revolutionary Patriot ancestor. So many stories are untold about these families, but now Zoe has a bit more of a picture of her ancestors. It is a gift of knowledge, not only for her but for Oliver James Lewis as well.

Because I had finished Zoe's book and I was a virtual hostage for a weekend, of New West Fest in Fort Collins, Colorado, I decided to do a book for Katie as well. After all, Grant Christopher Lewis needs a genealogy gift too. His older brother, Jack, got the Mayflower book when he was born but Grant hadn't received any genealogy yet.

I must explain that where I live is Old Town, Fort Collins and New West Fest takes over Old Town during the 3rd weekend in August. If you move your vehicle from the parking lot you may have to park several blocks away so it is best to just stay home. A perfect set up to do genealogy for hours and hours and hours. No guilt trip here at all (g)

I had received some family information from Katie several years ago and I had enough to be dangerous. What fun to find new names and people that weren't adverse to being found. Not like my own ancestors that play all sorts of hide and seek games with me. These folks were taken by surprise and co-operated beautifully. It wasn't long before I had her ancestors back 10 generations. I found three Revolutionary Patriot ancestors as well.

I finished the books in time to give them to the girls on Labor Day when all were at Don & Cindy's for a family reunion/baby shower. I really missed the books as they had sat on my table for a good deal of time and they were old friends. These are footprints of people gone now. But they are not forgotten as long as we learn about them and remember them.

So now I am back to my own ancestors which never tire of playing hide and seek with me and I never tire of finding them. patj