After reading the Hanford book (I reviewed it a few days ago), I got into looking up a lot of information about the Hanford site.
Once I round up some death certificates, I will see if I can get employment records from the Department of Energy Hanford for both of my grandfathers and a great uncle. I'm awaiting some property documents from South Dakota about the property my grandmother was born on and I've written to the family that now owns the property.
When I look at my son's family tree...it really only has my side. His birth father was adopted and the trail is really cold. There are half siblings and I only know where a couple of them are. I'm doing some tracing now trying to find his old school records (if only I knew what schools he attended), and have applied for his military records.
I really do want to get on Ancestry.com and get the family trees fleshed out a bit more and see how much further I can go back than what we have. I'm also super interested in any documents I can locate because to me those help flesh out the life of a person and help piece their story together. I just drag my feet because I so prefer to work from home.
I find it all fascinating. I think I would have made a good detective...or spy.
Have you worked on your own family history? Have you ever found any big surprises?
We have a very good history from my dad's side, and it was all done for us by one of my cousins. She recently sent us a "book" with the family history going back to England in the 1600 or 1700's. I know there is a Dudley castle that belonged to an ancestor (Check out Dudley Castle on the web).
ReplyDeleteI also know one of our ancestors was a private bodyguard for Joseph Smith, (no surprise) there are a number of polygamists in the family.
I would like to get more info on my mom's family, which is going to be tricky because there are Native Americans not too far back, and those records don't really exist. I keep hoping one of my nieces will get the bug and do that side. Its SOOO much easier to get someone else to do it, and plus they have access to the LDS database. (another interesting factoid, my aunt and uncle went on a mission after their kids were grown and went to Salt Lake and spent their mission working on the database you speak of).
I think you need to take up the Aunt Dolly mystery... you could be the one that cracks the case.... I too find it fascinating, but it's absolutely not a toddler mommy friendly type of activity -- someday... let's hope those dead folks aren't going anywhere --
ReplyDeleteD's paternal grandfather was left in Sweden with his grandmother when the rest of the family immigrated to the US -- sooo much to dig into...
Yes, the Dolly mystery needs to be solved for sure! It does take concentration, and times when you have papers scattered all over the place...better for when the kids are older...the dead stay dead, so you've got time :-)
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