Family History

I am addicted to ancestry.com.  ADDICTED.  That website is like crack.  And they know it too since they charge what I consider to be an assload of money just to access public information.  BUT all that public information is in one place and easily searchable, so......

Back in February a friend of mine sent me some info about a distant relative that was a sculptor in Italy.  There was all this information about the man and I was fascinated.  My friend told me that his father was cleaning out his office closet and found a folder full of family history that has been passed down.  He got excited about the possibility of discovering his family and signed up at ancestry.com.  Of course, within an hour I did the same.

It started out easy enough.  I emailed my mother and she gave me what she knew off of the top of her head.  For the first two weeks I was a madwoman.  I spent all day every day working on this family tree.  I was amazed at the information that popped up.  I kept digging and digging and would call my mother at 10pm in the middle of the week with questions.  When she answered the phone I wouldn't even say hello but rather just shout "Great grandma's last name was Butler, wasn't it?!"  Even she was amazed at what I was finding.

It's been almost 2 months since I started on this journey.  I've now created a tree for my husband's family as well.  I granted him access to the tree and then got pissed off that he would log in and mess with it (in case you forgot, I have control issues).  I tried to remind myself that it was HIS tree anyway so he could do what he wanted with it.  But then i would tell him over dinner about how what he had added to the tree was stupid.  Come on, you should not be surprised at my bitchiness by this point.  Anyway, both trees have people going back almost to the 900's which is freakin' amazing.  Ancestry.com keeps giving me information so I keep adding the people.  I feel like I have to follow and investigate EVERY SINGLE LEAD.  I mean, what if I am related to a King (which I am by the way)?  I need to know this!

I have gotten stuck on my dad's side.  I'm as far back as my great great grandparents and then the trail runs dry.  I know that my great grandfather was orphaned so finding out about his parents has been hard.  Then there is my great grandfather on my paternal gradmother's side.  Apparently he walked out on his family and remarried.  I've found bits and pieces but for some reason cannot find his parents or his first wife's parents.  I finally bit the bullet about 2 weeks ago and ordered his birth certificate online.  Up until this point I've been very hesitant about spending money on this gig.  I'm very much into the process but also don't want to spend a fortune just to find out who my relatives are.  In any case, every single day now I race to the mailbox to see if the birth certificate has arrived and it hasn't.  I want and need to order more documents but I want to see what I get with this first one before I go further along the same route.

I'm not as gung ho about the tree as I was a month and a half ago, but I'm still plugging along.  I've found that it's good to take a break and then revisit what I've done.  I start to see things that blew right past me in my flurry of activity.  And trust me, every little piece of information helps.  An initial, a date, a location.  It just narrows the search and helps to pinpoint the person you are looking for.  Overall it's been a great experience and really eye opening.  I find myself wondering about what life was like for Pepin the Short King of Franks and his wife Betrade Big Foot Laon.  Or what about Boleslav the Cruel Prince of Bohemia (what made him cruel?) and Sigurd Snake Eyes King of Danes?  I guess once I'm done getting people on the tree I'll have my work cut out for me in finding more of their actual history.