Ancestry

I’ve been working on my families genealogy for many years. It has always been an interest of mine, however, I found I didn't sleep at night when working on my investigations. I either got to caught up with the research and worked most of the night or couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about past ancestors, their lives, and how I could glean more information about their lives.

Now retirement allows for many things, one of them is to pursue my passion for genealogy. I’d been interested in Ancestry.com for years but felt the cost, currently $200 a year, was to much when I had a job which should and did occupy most of my time. Last January I bought a membership thinking I would recover as much information as I could from the site and then pull out. This idea has now been revised however.

Back in the day when I send off a request and three dollars via snail mail I’d wait weeks for get a response. I might get a response if the Clerk of Court took pity on me or I had a relative with the knowledge and time to share. It was a long and laborious process. Now I get information from Ancestry every time I log on. I can even go back to ancestors I have researched previously and still discover new information. I’ve found relatives (yes, I did the DNA) who are third and fourth cousins and are happy to share photos and information I don’t have.

Alfred and Catherine Jamison Homestead in Lyons, Colorado. Thank you, Cousin Clark

The only “down” side I see with Ancestry is as I understand the process, if I don’t renew the membership my family line will remain in Ancestry but the information/research/data will disappear from the site, which is key to family research.

One of the reasons I wanted to get on Ancestry is to share what I have. Currently none of the members of my immediate family have an interest in the family genealogy, their eyes glaze over whenever I bring it up. Genealogy is like a Crime Scene Investigation, you work and work but some of it is theory and it is the theory which needs to be discussed and all sides of the family dynamics must be looked at. Ancestry allows like minded relatives to put their heads together and solve those allusive questions which have been keeping me up at night!