Family Trees

So I have to admit that all of the ancestory.com commercials finally got to me.  I think the one that finally made me jump on the bandwagon was the guy who didn’t join at first because he knew there were slaves in his background and he was afraid of what he would find but found some inspirational information.  That fake story got me to try it out (you get a 14 day free trial in theory).

I guess I just figured that if someone could find information like that out there in theory, then maybe an adoptee could learn a bit more about her past.  The wonders of the internet helped me out.
Questions about my past were the first I asked when I started talking to NeverTooLate and SinginInTheRain.  NeverTooLate ’s mother was born in the Azores, and had immigrated here when she was 20.  Her parents were born here, but had their kids there.  I’m not sure how that all worked out.  SinginInTheRain didn’t know anything other than his grandparents were from Portugal but didn’t ever talk about it.  He didn’t seem to know, and I know him well enough now to expect that he told me everything he knew. SinginInTheRain may have let NeverTooLate’s father’s name slip once, but other than that, they have never told me names.

That’s where the internet becomes a wonderful thing.  I found Sandlot’s birth announcement online, with her grandparents’ names listed (and a Great-grandmother too).  I used the free online birthday database to figure out their birthdays and plugged them in.  Someone in SinginInTheRain's family did a public tree for his father, so suddenly, I had a whole fourth of my tree figured out a few generations back!  Coolest thing about the guy that did it… he included pictures!  Now I know that my great-grandfather was from Portugal (I even know the name of the village), and his wife was born here (her parents were both from different islands in the Azores).

To be fair to my parents, I did their trees out too.  I want to make books for my grandparents for their anniversaries with their family history.  Thought it would be a nice touch.  If I can use this great tool to find my history, they should get to use it too, and they can’t because they aren’t as patient as I am with computers.

My whole life I have never really been able to fill out a family tree.  It still stinks that I don’t know any of my great-grandparents on NeverTooLate’s side, but maybe someday I will.  I’m a big fan of ancestory.com and figured I’d spread the love around a bit!