Friday, March 4, 2016

30 x 30 Challenge: Progress Not Perfection


I realized this morning that there will be much more I want to search for or that I am missing the "younger" my ancestor is. For example, my grandfather. Not only did he attend grammar school, he went to high school, college and trade school. He took continuing education classes. I had completely forgotten to include Education on my punch list!

This is a good exercise for me. I have been so focused on my "older" ancestors for so long that my "younger" ancestors, the one's I actually knew, got neglected.

What did I actually know of my grandparents?

Ha! When I sat down to start on my first 30 minute ancestor, my father's father, I realized I don't even have a date or location of his marriage! This poses somewhat of a challenge as my father, an only child, passed away in 2007. Add it to the list of "to locate/order", and move on.

My grandmother, my father's mother, died at the age of 48. The story was that she was "sickly" but no, I don't know what she died from! Add "locate/order death cert" to to-do list.

On my mother's side, my grandmother was the Genealogy Queen, and she did leave some good info on herself, but I have almost nothing on my mother's father, who also died young, at the age of 51. I know that he left the family when my mom was just 5 years old, and for many years she thought her much older brother was her father.

Started a "questions for mom" list.

I am realizing that although I have a good outline of facts, I am missing quite a bit of documentation and more interesting facts that round out a life.

So far the urge to go running off in search of the missing information/proof has been hard to resist, but I am making progress with my "to locate/order" list .......

                       ......... and trying not to get too overwhelmed!

to be continued


1 comment:

  1. Welcome to GeneaBloggers! I really like your 'voice' and have enjoyed reading your posts. "Ancestor Archaeology' is a great term too- I will use that with my family who think genealogy is just a fun little hobby. I like your 30x30 Challenge- it does seem to make things seem more manageable. Trying to carve out 30 min. per day is definitely more do-able than trying to find a bigger chunk of time. Trying to hold back from researching too will be my problem!

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