Genealogy

One of my favorite (mostly free) hobbies is genealogy research.  Years ago, pre-computer, this was a slow and painstaking process but with the advent of computers, digitized records, and collaborative genealogy websites, this is an even more enjoyable and fascinating hobby!  The free collaborative website I use is Family Search which allowed me to upload all of the genealogy records I had amassed over the years, while at the same time other genealogists in my extended family have done the same.  Many have also added photos, newspaper clippings, and other pertinent genealogy records which is a wonderful way to stroll through the past and learn about my ancestors.  Here are a few of them...

This is my great great grandmother in 1897.  Unfortunately she passed away eight years after this photo was taken from tuberculosis (her 6 year old son, my great grandfather's brother, died six months after she did from the same disease).

The man in the middle of this photo (my great great grandfather) taken in 1891 is the husband of the lady in the photo above, his siblings, their children, and his parents (my great great great grandparents).  They were early settlers in Michigan when it was still a territory and they owned several businesses.

This is my great great grandfather (another branch of the family tree) in the early 1900s who was an engineer at a power plant.  According to the newspaper article attached to his profile, "he was caught in a belt at the power plant and his body was horribly mutilated, he leaves a widow and five children."

This is yet another great great grandfather (four generations back you have A LOT of ancestors!) taken in the late 1800s. In his family, nearly all of the photos include family members and their guns (maybe that's where I got my enjoyment of shooting from!).

There are all kinds of stories shared about my ancestors on the website...a few generations of accused witches in New England in the 1700s, a bit of royalty in the 1600s, several scoundrels, a family kidnapped by Indians, explorers, settlers, some war heroes, some tragic deaths (one family lost four of their children to scarlet fever in a two month time period!).  The website also shows what famous people you are related to--in my case I am related to more than half of the US presidents, and several famous people like Lucille Ball and Elvis (all VERY distant relatives...Audrey Hepburn in my 12th cousin twice removed!).

If you are up for a free, endlessly fascinating hobby check out Family Search, there's a good chance that your family tree has already been built there!