So, I lost most of my blog posts (long story) and will be slowly trying to piece the blog back together. For now, I will be at wordpress.com instead of org. We shall see what happens a little later. The important thing is that I keep working to fill in my family tree. Please be patient with me as I get this thing together. Much thanks.
In speaking with my grandpa tonight, he told me:
I sho’ do love talkin’ to you.
Awww! That made me feel so happy! I love talking to my grandpa too! I’m glad he enjoys our conversations; I’m even gladder that we are able to have them in this life. I’m very thankful for our relationship. Grandpa has an abundance of wisdom and a great sense of humor. We have the most interesting talks. It’s cool to find out that not only do I enjoy our discussions — he does as well. He had never expressed such a thing to me before.
Since putting myself through graduate school, money has become very tight (that and the economy being the way that it is). Therefore, I have had to end my paid subscription with ancestry.com, and have yet to purchase the genealogy organizing software of my dreams.
While I am very sad about having to take such an action, in my bit of free time I have located a list from about.com of free genealogy resources on the web. While I haven’t been able to go through every one, most appear quite promising.
Do you know of any resources to help one conduct genealogy research on a budget?
A recent school assignment has helped me to break through, what I thought was, a brick wall. My classmates and I were instructed to write a brief biography of an African American woman and how we knew of them; it could be anyone — internationally known, alive, or not. I chose my late grandmother whom I posted about before. In revisiting some of her records, I came across those of other family members, in particular, my great-grandmother B. Blue. Somehow, I had previously overlooked the listing on her death certificate of both of her parents’ names! Perhaps I wasn’t at the time looking for them?? In seeking more information about each parent, I have been able to go back another generation on my family tree via census records. I was also able to find information about a great uncle. I am very thrilled about my recent progress.
I have reached a point in my research where I am not yielding many results, small or large, through the use of online resources alone. In short, I have come across a number of brick walls. Now that I’m now residing in the state where much of my father’s side of the family is located, I have decided to shift my focus on gathering photos, interviews and the like from those nearby elders.
