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!

The Family Genealogy Project

I've been working on my family's genealogy off and on for decades.  Fortunately we have some really good researchers in the family who have got back to the 1400s!  Last night hubby's sister asked me if I could help put together the genealogy for their side of the family and I reluctantly agreed to help.  I say reluctantly because #1, hubby's family is all from the Philippines and record keeping was hardly done as recently as 50 years ago, and #2, hubby's family is HUGE (his dad had 15 kids and 19 sibling, his mom had a dozen siblings).  So instead of a family tree it looks like a family hedgerow!

Since I have lots of free time anyway, I will give it a shot.  I am using FamilySearch (free) to do research and to create the family tree in.  I'm not a fan of Ancestry because you have to pay every month or you can't access it, even if you have put a lot of records, time, and effort into the site.

Hubby's dad's side is a bit researched because his great grandfather was a governor and they named a university after him so that is helpful (that's his photo above).  On the other hand, I can hardly imagine one generation having over 500 immediate relatives!  Yikes!

Some Genealogy Stuff

If you are looking for a fascinating and free hobby, consider genealogy!  If you are interested in history, your family, researching, and solving mysteries, genealogy might be the hobby for you.  This is a photo of my ancestors in 1891 which I found on a free genealogy site which was uploaded by a distant cousin.  In fact there are plenty of free resources for amateur genealogist but like any hobby you can go from free and dabbling to expensive and traveling the would to do research fairly quickly.  Here are some great places to start:

• Gramps (free genealogy research software, basically software you keep on your computer to store all of your research/documents/photos in an orderly fashion).
• FamilySearch (free online genealogy database, it's a great place to start your search for your ancestors).
• Family History Libraries (LDS libraries with all sorts of free genealogy research materials and really nice people to help you with your genealogy questions).
• GedMatch (if you do a DNA test, you can put your results into this free website and connect with your genetic relations).
• FindAGrave (free cemetery records).
• Reddit Genealogy (a free bulletin board; the people here can answer many of your genealogy questions and are amazing at helping with research).
• Google (one of the best free online research option).

Genealogy...A Fun and (Kind of) Inexpensive Hobby

Most of my hobbies are pretty frugal.  I love to walk (free, just need shoes), I love to read (thousands of books can be had free on Kindle from the library), and another favorite hobby is genealogy (cheap, kind of).  I love research so researching ancestors, especially with the internet, can make for a pretty interesting and inexpensive hobby.

As with any hobby, you can go from frugal to freakin expensive pretty easily.  I know some genealogists who have subscriptions to every genealogy service, spend quite a bit on DNA tests, acquire tons of records which cost money if you are ordering them from county agencies, and travel back to the home country to do research (think Scotland or England).  But the basics of genealogy (tracing your family roots) can be started for free of for very little money.

There are a lot of ways to "do genealogy" but the most basic way to get started is to write down your information (full name, date of birth, place of birth, parent's names, etc).  Next, do the same for your parents (full name at birth, married name, date/place of birth, wedding location/date, date/place of death, list of their children, their parent's names), ad infinitum.  Of course, genealogy is all about the "proof" which means you need the documentation to prove the information you are writing down (birth certificates showing both parent's names, photos of grave markers, death certificates, marriage certificates, census records, etc).

Fortunately a lot of the basic information you need can be had for free or very cheap.  For yourself and immediate relatives you can often ask for copies of records.  When you get back generations, you will need to find the records yourself through research (ie: you know that great grandma died in Michigan so you go to Seeking Michigan online digital archives and look for a death certificate which often has additional information on it including date and place of birth, parent's name, date/location/cause of death, etc).  Needless to say you can go pretty far down the rabbit hole with this sort of hobby.  With some ancestors a simple Google search turns up even more information (one of my ancestors, Mary Staples, was reportedly a witch, another ancestor, Jane Strope, was captured by Indians).

If you want to get started with the fascinating hobby of genealogy, here are some free resources:

• Gramps (a free computer program to record all of your genealogy research)
• Family Search (free genealogy records search database)
• Find a Grave (huge collection of grave information)
• Reddit Genealogy (bulletin board to ask for help and information)
• 50 Free Genealogy websites (all kinds of free resources)
• Finding Your Roots (fascinating PBS show about genealogy)
• List of US Archives and Genealogy Libraries (free libraries to help with your genealogy research)
• Google (often Googling a name and date will pull up info on an ancestor)