Welcome friends and readers to my web page!

Welcome friends and readers to my web page!

I write sweet and inspirational romances and romantic suspense novels for Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense, Simon and Schuster, Howard Books, and Tule Publishing Group. I love to interact with readers daily on Facebook and Instagram.
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Jun 11, 2014

Tracing the Family Tree

A few years ago, a Ancestry.com add dropped into my inbox. The site offers a 14-day trial period. I had always wanted to trace my family tree.  Since it was Christmas at the time and I was between books, I took two weeks to comb through the Ancestry.com site.  It was fascinating and frustrating. In the photo you see the little green leafs by a name. Those are hints that might lead to another ancestor. Sometimes the hints can lead you astray. Several times I thought I had found an ancestor and followed their leafy hint trail only to realize, oops, not the correct person with the same name as one of my ancestors.  Then I had to back track to the point where I deviated from my family tree and try to find the correct person to follow.  I had to take notes as I was going to keep track of all the information.


My mother’s ancestors were much easier to find than my father’s. 

My dad’s father, my paternal grandfather, was an orphan by the age of three living in St. Mary’s Orphanage. That’s as far back I as I could go. The orphanage records indicate his parents were emigrants from Ireland working in the gold mines in the Grass Valley hills of California.  I’ve requested information from the organization that has preserved the orphanage in hopes they will have more information on my grandfather’s parents.

My paternal 2nd great grandmother was born in Finland in the late 1800’s.  She came to America at age 14 and settled with her parents in California.  She married a man who also emigrated from Finland at age 20 to America and settled in California.  They married when she was 20 and he was 26.


However, on my mother’s side, I could trace my maternal grandmother’s family back to England in the 1600’s. I found out that the name Teel, which was my grandmother’s middle name and now my daughter’s middle name was a family name going back to the 1800’s.  

And I traced my maternal grandfather’s family to Ulster New York in the 1600’s.  I also found records that my great, great grandfather at age 17, served in the Civil War. He lived in Illinois at the time.

I haven’t invested in searching historical records of other countries. One day when I have the time I will do that but for now I have this lovely family tree that gives me a sense of belonging. I know where some of my ancestors lived and what they did for a living, and when they died.  Most lived very long lives.

Have you done any research on your family? What interesting things have you found? I'd love to know.  Maybe we're connected? You never know.


3 comments:

  1. I actually spent a couple of years investigating my family tree. As with yours, I hit brick walls with some parts as early as my great-grandmother, but others do go back to the 1600's. Many lived long lives, but one woman died at the age of 46 having had 13 children, and several were so poor they spent time in English workhouses.

    Be careful - it's a time suck (and you have books to write!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Iola for your encouragement and your advice. I only work on it when I'm between contracts or during the brainstorming stage or away from home. I can do it on my iPad. Its so interesting to see where we came from, isn't it?

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