THIS LITTLE TWIGGIE...
I've recently, at my grandson's request, started working on his family tree.
I haven't worked on this branch since the mid-1980s, before even Steve Jobs knew what was going to happen with computers. Yeah, he wanted our phones to take photographs, but who would have thought thousands of courthouse records would end up on the interent? Who even dreamed of something remotely close to a thing like the internet? Or find-a-grave.com...every grave stone in the United States on the internet with a picture? Seriously? It is even branching out to other countries. Absolutely astounding! And FREE :-)
There have been three books written about my grandson's paternal line, the first written in the late 1800s. I use previously written books as my jumping off point to lead me to primary sources. Much later than the Civil War, and I start getting foggy -- it's difficult to read the handwriting, and Colonial America is way out of my comfort zone -- British Law has never been a strong suite. But thanks to various FaceBook groups, there are huge numbers of wonderful people lessening my struggles.
There is sooooo much evidence at my fingertips that was difficult, if not impossible to acquire in the 1880s, or even in the 1980s. I am amazed, quite frankly, how much those early researchers did get right, and I have found some astounding information, which made me think -- I should put that "out there somewhere" to share with others.
Google, I'm guessing, is going to find me.
The two later books of my grandson's direct line appear to be written based on the first one, both of them pre-computer and pre-internet days. Stray Branches will contain short biographies (with real sources!) that I hope other researchers will find helpful in straightening some of the complicated messes of random genealogical families.
Because, you know, families ARE messy!
I've recently, at my grandson's request, started working on his family tree.
I haven't worked on this branch since the mid-1980s, before even Steve Jobs knew what was going to happen with computers. Yeah, he wanted our phones to take photographs, but who would have thought thousands of courthouse records would end up on the interent? Who even dreamed of something remotely close to a thing like the internet? Or find-a-grave.com...every grave stone in the United States on the internet with a picture? Seriously? It is even branching out to other countries. Absolutely astounding! And FREE :-)
There have been three books written about my grandson's paternal line, the first written in the late 1800s. I use previously written books as my jumping off point to lead me to primary sources. Much later than the Civil War, and I start getting foggy -- it's difficult to read the handwriting, and Colonial America is way out of my comfort zone -- British Law has never been a strong suite. But thanks to various FaceBook groups, there are huge numbers of wonderful people lessening my struggles.
There is sooooo much evidence at my fingertips that was difficult, if not impossible to acquire in the 1880s, or even in the 1980s. I am amazed, quite frankly, how much those early researchers did get right, and I have found some astounding information, which made me think -- I should put that "out there somewhere" to share with others.
Google, I'm guessing, is going to find me.
The two later books of my grandson's direct line appear to be written based on the first one, both of them pre-computer and pre-internet days. Stray Branches will contain short biographies (with real sources!) that I hope other researchers will find helpful in straightening some of the complicated messes of random genealogical families.
Because, you know, families ARE messy!
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