Relics: Genealogy, family stories, history & other curiosities.

I t's been more than a month since I have updated and I won't let that happen again.   Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope that anyone reading this has had a wonderful meal with family and friends, with many things and people to be thankful for this season.   Here are some things that I am grateful for: My thanks to everyone who has been helpful and support of me in my pursuit of the people, records, photos and more that have built and continue to build my family trees. My sister Stephanie, is an enthusiatic sounding board. My mother and my Aunt Evie continue to offer historical context and help to sort fact from fiction.  I could write a whole post about the support and help I received from my beloved Aunt Nancy and plan to do that separately. I was inspired to start blogging about my genealogy experience after participating in Amy Johnson Crow's 31 Days to Better Genealogy Project on Facebook.  Several members took the time to read and comment and it was a positive and enc

Alacrity: brisk and cheerful readiness. I have never given much thought at all to my family's ancestors in context to the Civil War.  I was always a History buff throughout school, but growing up in New York's Hudson Valley, my focus was squarely on finding my Revolutionary War ancestors.  Most of what I know about the Civil War is straight out of Little Women.   I was surprised recently to discover at least four ancestors (I can confirm) are in deed veterans of the Civil War.  And looking over my timelines I am pretty confident there are more.  I finally got around to joining the Orange County Genealogy Society and while perusing their website I discovered the treasure trove of publications they have for sale.  This is very fortunate for me, as I now live in FL and feel so isolated and cut off from the Rockland Room collection at the New City Library.  It is this collection that really got me started in genealogy.   From the OCGS, I ordered Monroe, Orange County, NY 18

October is Family History Month.  My first thought upon learning this is, isn't every month?!   Seriously though, this reminder is the perfect opportunity to reboot my genealogy.  As I said in my very first post here, I have been working on my family tree for ten years. I have notebooks filled with notes scribbles, binders  of yellowed newspaper clippings, and lots of old photos of people and places I don't recognize. It is time to get organized. Lofty Goals- I have to admit its a little overwhelming.  There has been more than one day in the last month that I wanted to stay home from work to just work on my genealogy.   I have been working hard to create my tree on the Ancestry site since I sent off my DNA.  I have 80 pages of matches!  I don't know if I will ever be able to get through it all.  There is so much I want to do. There are classes to take, timelines to create, notes to revisit and most importantly I want to review all the information and sources I have on

Yesterday, I planned on searching the probate records that  Ancestry had been heavily advertising over the Labor Day weekend.  Something sidetracked me and I started searching for records of my great grandmother Olga Poyhonen (spelling very fluid) and I came across a small article in the Monessen, Pa Valley Independen t newspaper from July 13, 1981.     Seeking Help- the article was captioned and the author was indeed looking for my great grandmother or her family.  The author of this article, a woman in Montana was quoted as saying, "this is very important to me."   The surprise of this person being out there (in Montana of all places) and searching for us since 1981, is one of the reasons I love family tree research.   I was hoping this woman was still alive and after a quick search found her address.  I wrote off a quick letter and hope to hear from her soon.  What are our connections?  I wonder what information she may have that could help me fill in the many missi

This is the new forum for my thoughts and discoveries.  I have been an amateur genealogist and family tree researcher for the better part of ten years now.  I love the thrill of the chase for a date, a place or a person. Whether it's found after hours of research at the computer, on a field trip to a cemetery or the municipal archives or stumbling onto a new person or new information quite by accident, I find researching the lives of my ancestors fascinating and constantly surprising.   I have been thinking a lot about a genealogy re-do, or perhaps trying to write narratives about who and what I do know in hopes it will help me refocus my thoughts and efforts. So, after years of collecting binders and notebooks and slips of paper, I am making the leap and starting to organize my people and my thoughts here.