Years ago I started researching my family history. I had a great-uncle that had been doing genealogy since the '50s (I think). He actually taught a course on researching genealogy in
Albuquerque, NM. I have published two family history books. One on my Father's - Father's line and the other on my Mother's - Mother's line. My paternal line book is the Abraham
Heinrichs Family which is
predominately Mennonites who were Germans from Russia. They were in Russia for over 100 years, but lived in German communities and spoke and taught their schools in German. Many believed that God would not understand them if they prayed in anything but German. My maternal line is the Gates/Chapman family history. These lines were
predominately English and come down from the same Gates line as General Horatio Gates and Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower. In the Gates line is the Captain of the Bedchamber for Henry the VIII. More recently we have my 5-great grandfather that was murdered in Wisconsin and there exists a plate glass negative of him dead in the middle of the road. Researching my family history was like being on a treasure hunt, turning up great treasures from time to time, never knowing where I'm going to find them.
The three smaller books are: a book published by my Gr-gr-grandmother about her mother called "Pioneer Short Stories". She tells about entering Lawrence right after
Quantril's raid to find the cousins that lived there. The middle book is my republication of "Pioneer Short Stories" and the third book is a story written by my grandmother's cousin, Edna
Windhorst, at my request. Edna lived to be 102 and lived on her own well into her later 90s. I encourage everyone to attempt to research your family history if it has not already been done. I did not like, nor did I understand history when I was in school. Researching my family history made it real, made it make sense, and made me want to find out more.
It also got me elected to organize a couple of family reunions. The cassette tapes below I put together from our family reunion in California. The talent show was the highlight. One thing that our Heinrichs family enjoys is singing. Getting together and singing truely "Golden Oldies" into the wee hours of the night is something that we always loved to do.
2 comments:
I was interested to read about your family history research. I have been researching my family history via Ancestry.com, without it I doupt I would have got very far. I expect the stuff you have was much more difficult to get hold of; especially in the early days. Now with the advent of computers and Internet it's realy easy to discover the basics. I would like to produce books on my family evntually. I have discovered that my grandfather was in the workhouse at the age of 5 years, with his 2 brothers 4 & 2 and mother. Even my mother did not know this until I told her! I took her to visit her cousin last year, whom she had not seen for 62 years and we visited the ancestoral home. Unfortunately I also found some exciting family; only to discover later that they are not and I need to search again. Ah well, it's all good fun. I now run a family research group at my place of work, one afternoon a week, which is enjoyed by a small number of people.
Keep enjoying life
Best Wishes
Rosie
Rosie - You're right about the research, it's a whole different world with the Internet. A good dear of my research was done via the mail. I wrote hundreds of letters of inquiry to individuals and small towns. Most towns have historians that are more than happy to answer questions. I certainly understand finding exciting information only to find it's incorrect. I need to revise my Gates/Chapman book because I have discovered that an early researcher made a wrong assumption about our Brewster lineage. The line he had us decended from would have made us related to Princess Di and her royal lineage. But that's not our line. Our line is rather common. Such is life. lol Everyone should spend some time doing family research, it's really an eye opener.
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