Monday, April 5, 2010

creepily obsessed...

After watching "Who Do You Think You Are" on Friday night, I sat at my computer almost EVERY waking moment of the weekend investigating my past on ancestry.com!

I was a detective solving a mystery! My Grandpa's Dad skipped town after his wife committed suicide, leaving his kids to be raised by some aunts. I'm trying to piece together the puzzle of whatever happened to him. I searched through hours of public records (1890 - 1930 censuses, marriage licenses, birth & death certificates, war enlistments, ship passenger lists, newspaper articles) and googled every combo of...

"charles elmer taylor, bread truck driver, hanging by rope, dorthea sophia augusta mistelle, jackson county history, kansas city, missouri & 2037 college ave"

Saturday, while I wasn't at the dog park, I traced my Dad's paternal grandmother's roots (Mistele family) back to 1430 in Germany & his maternal grandfather's side (Vatcher family) to England. On Sunday my Mom got in on the action! We were on speaker phone for at least 4 hours yesterday tracing the Bruce family (my mom's maternal grandmother) back to the year 710 and all the kings of Scotland! We studied each name, read stories of vikings & wars, noticed if your child dies you usually name the next child the same name as your dead one, talked Braveheart (Robert the Bruce is my ancestor), came up with some cool names for my unborn children, had headaches from all the computer screen staring, ignored all our responsibilities and were beyond fascinated by every hint/ leaf icon we uncovered!

I still have A LOT of work ahead of me and have to do it fast (I only have a 14 day free trial)!!!

This fine looking lady is my great grandma, Mary Louise Owens Vatcher!

2 comments:

LuLu said...

Whoa geney, that is so crazy!!!! I am glad you are doing this, i can't stand that only the stupid celebrities are able to find out about their ancestor's...

hub of the house said...

FINALLY celebrities and commoners unite!