I have been doing genealogy since the death of my mother's sister in 1990. She passed to me the work she had done; she was the first to research these lines. Soon after that, my father's paternal first cousin passed the torch to me which he had inherited from his uncle. For my paternal grandmother's side, I made a copy of a book on her father's surname, and talked to and corresponded with the relatives. I did use a genealogy software program to organize the information, but the research was done by contacting relatives and going to court houses, libraries, graveyards, etc, for records. I ordered copies of many records and even went to the National Archives to look at microfilm. One county courthouse even let me photocopy pages of old, fragile and falling apart, will books, which were stored in a non-climate controlled basement. I didn't do much after 2005 until a couple of years ago when a friend wanted to get my adopted wife's DNA to help her research her biological family. She pointed out how many records are now scanned and on-line. Now I have become hooked again. Find-A-Grave has been one of many internet sources of previously difficult to find records. I have been compulsively editing incomplete and sometimes incorrect information and linking family members to each other. I don't add or correct data for which I don't have references. It is wonderful to see so many people helping to preserve graveyards and save and honor the ancestors and family histories they contain.

I have been doing genealogy since the death of my mother's sister in 1990. She passed to me the work she had done; she was the first to research these lines. Soon after that, my father's paternal first cousin passed the torch to me which he had inherited from his uncle. For my paternal grandmother's side, I made a copy of a book on her father's surname, and talked to and corresponded with the relatives. I did use a genealogy software program to organize the information, but the research was done by contacting relatives and going to court houses, libraries, graveyards, etc, for records. I ordered copies of many records and even went to the National Archives to look at microfilm. One county courthouse even let me photocopy pages of old, fragile and falling apart, will books, which were stored in a non-climate controlled basement. I didn't do much after 2005 until a couple of years ago when a friend wanted to get my adopted wife's DNA to help her research her biological family. She pointed out how many records are now scanned and on-line. Now I have become hooked again. Find-A-Grave has been one of many internet sources of previously difficult to find records. I have been compulsively editing incomplete and sometimes incorrect information and linking family members to each other. I don't add or correct data for which I don't have references. It is wonderful to see so many people helping to preserve graveyards and save and honor the ancestors and family histories they contain.