Sunday, September 30, 2012

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 40

Week 40: Wild Card.
Is there something for which you are thankful that has not been discussed yet? Share your genealogical abundance on a personal level. How does this person/item/group/memory or other entity impact your family history?

I am the family secret - the skeleton in the closet, if you will.  The details of my birth and my father were obscured from view for the first fifty years of my life.  Oh I did know that my mother was married twice and that my stepfather had adopted me and they had my name changed - I knew all about the tip of the iceberg.

But the desire to uncover what lay below the surface is what sent me full throttle down the genealogical research path.  Little did I know how my life would be enriched by the journey - how many wonderful friends I'd make, how much history I'd learn, how many places I'd go, and that I would ultimately come to know a great deal about that other half of my family.

Of course once hooked on family research, there's no stop sign.  I have researched not only my birth father's families, but those of my mother. Then on to the families of my stepfather, but he was adopted and so there is his adoptive family and his birth family to work on for my half siblings' benefit. And my husband's kin needed proper attention so my children would know that side of their heritage. And my son-in-law's father's family because his dad asked me if I ever ran across his surname...