At my Grandparents' house there was a big trunk full of old family bibles, documents, and photos. It just sat there in a closet, undisturbed, too precious to rifle through on a regular basis. One summer, while on a maternity leave, I opened the trunk and found that some of the papers were starting to disintegrate. That realization kicked off my interest in our family history. Initially I just wanted to make copies of everything in the trunk so that 'whoever would want to do the research' would have touchable, readable copies. And then I got sucked in...

It has been a thrilling mystery to unravel and there are times when it feels like I'm gardening, tending the family lot, weeding through actual facts and resisting the temptations of possible or probable but unproven facts and connections. I check in on the research from time to time every few years and almost always find new and exciting information.

The most frustrating aspect as been that we have hundreds of family photos and only about a few dozen of them are identified.

My favorite thing about Find A Grave is that it's a venue for people's stories. So far my Father's family stories involve these names: Smith, Nicholson, Young, Neilson, Ellender, Harle, Edwards, Gamble, and Stevens.

Perhaps some day I'll take the challenge of digging into my mother's family, but that search goes international. Perhaps I have a cousin who'll take on that challenge?

At my Grandparents' house there was a big trunk full of old family bibles, documents, and photos. It just sat there in a closet, undisturbed, too precious to rifle through on a regular basis. One summer, while on a maternity leave, I opened the trunk and found that some of the papers were starting to disintegrate. That realization kicked off my interest in our family history. Initially I just wanted to make copies of everything in the trunk so that 'whoever would want to do the research' would have touchable, readable copies. And then I got sucked in...

It has been a thrilling mystery to unravel and there are times when it feels like I'm gardening, tending the family lot, weeding through actual facts and resisting the temptations of possible or probable but unproven facts and connections. I check in on the research from time to time every few years and almost always find new and exciting information.

The most frustrating aspect as been that we have hundreds of family photos and only about a few dozen of them are identified.

My favorite thing about Find A Grave is that it's a venue for people's stories. So far my Father's family stories involve these names: Smith, Nicholson, Young, Neilson, Ellender, Harle, Edwards, Gamble, and Stevens.

Perhaps some day I'll take the challenge of digging into my mother's family, but that search goes international. Perhaps I have a cousin who'll take on that challenge?