I am celebrating my 25th year as a genealogist. How time flies when you’re having fun! So I am often stopped in the midst of the happy dance when someone asks me, “Are you finished with your genealogy?” The short answer is, “No.” When I started I did not know the names of any of my great-grandparents. So I had lots of work to do. I spent a lot of hours at the National Archives branch at the Federal Center poring over census record microfilm.
I subscribed to Ancestry.com after my first three years and found it helpful. The constant addition of new records to the database has enabled me to get back to about 1700 in U.S. records.
Fold3.com is primarily a database of U.S. military records. I found my 4th great-grandfather’s Revolutionary War pension application there which detailed not only his military service, but his two marriages and the names of his daughters and their husbands.
FamilySearch.org gave me access to my 5th great-grandfather’s probate records from 1796 and 1802, including the names of his deceased children and the distribution of his land and slaves. AncestryDNA opened up an entirely new branch of my family by connecting me to several descendants of my 3rd great-grandmother, Manette Roy Chapmond of Louisiana. This information explains why my 2nd great-grandfather spoke French even though he lived in Arkansas.
I’ve recorded most of this information on Legacy Family Tree software on my home computer. I prefer owning my family information on my own computer rather than relying on access to an online family tree.
Of course, I haven’t spent all those 25 years on my own family tree. I also worked on my husband’s family and volunteered to help many others locate their own families. Join me in celebrating my 25 years of genealogy.
Carol Cooke Darrow is a professional genealogist who teaches the free CGS Beginning Genealogy class on Zoom on the second Saturday of each month. Register at cogensoc.us.