Why bother blogging?

I began my ancestral journey in the summer of 2004 after re-organizing family photos and putting them into archival quality albums. It started as a quest to identify people in pictures and ended up being an all-encompassing hobby!

In my research, I found many ways to discover people in my family's past. One of those methods was to join genealogically based mailing lists. I used the Rootsweb site to do this, since they have an extensive collection of email lists, from surnames to locations. I've been skimming through postings to these lists and making my own posts for almost a year now. Since January of this year, I have had several cousins of varying degrees contact me via email (most are second cousins to me; a few are first or second cousins once or twice removed). As a result, I not only have information on my ancestors that would have taken me years to find on my own, I also have developed friendships with these cousins. I have current pictures of them, communicate with them via email and/or Instant Messaging, and exchange information.

To sum it all up, I know how valuable the internet can be to one's genealogical pursuits. While internet databases provide me with the means to find information, message boards, email groups, personal webpages, and blogs provide me with the means to connect with people. So that is why I decided to create a blog.

The link above will take you to my webpage on AOL and provide you with an outline of the people for whom I am searching (and some pretty great pictures!). I intend to use this blog to post about individual members of my family. Hopefully I will find even more information and connect with even more cousins!