Installment # 2

Okay, it appears I'm talking/writing to myself, but hopefully, and yes I still have hope, in time others will find my blog and contribute, if nothing more than to just say hi. While that is not my goal, it would be an accomplishment for now. Of course it has only been a few hours short of two days since I began, but patience has never been one of my strong suits.

Since my initial post I have given my objective, of finding and connecting family members, a bit more thought and perhaps the idea of sharing family information on the internet would make some uncomfortable. So I may have a solution, share a "teaser" so to speak, such as a name and birth date, spouse, etc., just something to allow others to determine if you're possibly related. Then communication between the parties can be through email. It's not just my good looks that attract folks to me, it's also my brains. Note: There should be a big smiley face inserted here, but I haven't set up any emoticons yet.

Here's a bit of advice for anyone just starting out. Any and all information you gather, regardless of how large or small it may be, record your source. If it came from Grandma or Gramps or Aunt Alice or Uncle Bud be sure you write/type it and attach it to he information you obtained. As I mentioned in my first post, it was roughly 28 years ago when I first started, but some of the information I discovered back then, I now have no idea where it originated.

One final note for this post, I suppose it might be comical in a sense, but for someone seriously trying to trace their ancestry, it's just not a good thing.

A couple of years I was on a website looking for kin and discovered a family tree that had familiar names in it, so I began comparing this information with my information. Not to try to sound superior, but my information was a little more thorough than what I had found. Suddenly BAM!!! This "tree" had one of my ancestors jumping back and forth from Benton County, TN, USA to somewhere in Australia. This was in the 1820's and the time frame made it obvious they weren't the same person. We all make mistakes and perhaps for me I steer to the side of caution where others may use something less than logical to connect families and individuals. I suppose this is certainly a personal choice, but I kinda like the thought of knowing I have proven my research. But, sometimes there is no way something can be "proven", right? What do I do, what do you do? Maybe someone will offer an answer, if not I'll address it in another installment.