Genealogy

Louise and I have been interested in genealogy for several years now and have spent our share of time looking through cemeteries for specific tombstones.  Its the kind of hobby where you can kind of run hot or cold; we just finished a stretch of three or four years where we didn't do anything at all.

Probably my best success was with my father's family.  Dad knew his own father but no one beyond that.  We were able to track his family back several generations and found out a lot of interesting things.  This was all done while he was still alive so he got to learn his family a bit better.

My mother's family is interesting in that HER mother's side has been well documented back to before the American Revolution.  In fact, there have been widely circulated books about this family.  On the other hand, her father's side (my maternal grandfather) is a complete dead end.  We know my grandfather's parents' names but nothing else about them.  Its kind of frustrating but perhaps some day we will find the key.  Ironically, Granddad was a member of the LDS church which is completely dedicated to genealogy.

As you may have guessed, we have started doing a bit more genealogy lately.  It is absolutely amazing how much "stuff" has been added on the Internet since we were involved last.  We just purchased a subscription to Ancestry.com and have already learned a lot just by going through their files.  Another interesting website is Findagrave.com, where volunteers have listed millions of tombstones from around the World.

It is a very fascinating hobby and if you have some spare time and interest in your family's past, you should look into it.  It has been very rewarding for us.