Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Tree Tuesday: Lost branches

One of my pleasures....when all work is done...when there are no commitments...is exploring my family tree. I've been amazed at some of the things I've discovered in the process of this exploration. There are different tools you can use to study your family tree...I choose to use ancestry.com.

I started out using their 'free' membership...I started a simple family tree. As the years went by, I upgraded to a paid membership because I wanted to access to more documents. I've also found other sites which provide great resources...one of said sites is...familysearch.org
This offers ample free resources which can help one build a substantial family tree.

One of the blessings of researching your family tree is that you find relatives you didn't know you had. Just recently, while I was in Denver, I was contacted by someone who was researching my gr-grandfather's family....I had been told my gr-grandfather had brothers....but I never knew what became of them. They were from Chicago....only my gr-grandfather came to Washington State....now suddenly I was introduced to a 'lost branch' of my family tree.

Amazingly, we both realized that we were in Colorado at the same time. We made plans to meet up...can you see the family resemblance? Our gr-grandfathers were brothers. 

The Chezsven Blog has a great story about cousins meeting up. You need to go and read about it at the blog update In which Sven meets his first cousin.  An absolutely amazing story about finding family connections. 


If you haven't ever dug around in your family roots...maybe you should consider starting today!


13 comments:

  1. I have yet to do this, but it does sound very interesting!

    My maternal grandfather was cut off from the family when he married my maternal grandmother. I've never met anyone on that side. I do wonder who they are...

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    1. Now see- that would be a perfect reason to start exploring your family roots. In fact, that was the very reason I first started- my paternal grandfather had cut himself off from his family in Massachusetts and my father wanted to know who they were and what they were like-- so I began the painstaking search. It was not always easy- but I can honestly say, it has been fulfilling (and very interesting).

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  2. You both look so similar. No wonder there is a connection there. And what must it feel like Connie! Wonderful. You know in India, we do this by going to marriages of cousins and that is where we get introduced to the big indian family. We take that so much for granted, because we get to know about relatives so easily, and thanks to our mummies, she always knows who is who and tells me this is that and this is this.

    We don't value that so much as you do.

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    1. Jenny- that is wonderful- I think it is important for mummies to keep our kids updated on who is who and how we are all related- I try with my kids- they just roll their eyes! ha ha!...one day they will understand how precious to know the connections.

      I think if I had lived here all my life maybe I would be more connected- but with all the traveling- being born in Singapore- etc- I did not have much contact with the extended family until now-- I do attend weddings and funerals and that helps alot (for getting connected)

      Your comment is so wonderful because it shows the richness of the Indian culture

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  3. looking forward to your lazy sunday this week :)

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  4. I love knowing about family. It means knowing about roots...

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    1. yes...ha ha...it does mean knowing about roots

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  5. the earlier indian tradition of joint families ensured there was a steady stream of relatives, first, second, third maybe even fourth and fifth cousins and their extended families to know each other!!! And like one reader pointed out, the numerous occasions like marriages etc ensured we knew who was part of the family and how they were related... but with the growing trend of nuclear families, all that is lost somewhere...

    this is a lovely post and has set me thinking how i can re connect with my ancestry...

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    1. yes, it is so sad- the nuclear family idea!!! The latest Discovering your roots on PBS did a episode and Sunjay Gupta and how he discovered his roots WAY BACK- because they say in India they have the most thorough keepers of family trees-- it was amazing to see how far back the records went!!!

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  6. Wow! that is something very nice, you meeting your cousins. Yes would visit the sites mentioned by you.

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    1. It was great- especially since it was a cousin I never knew I had.

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  7. How exciting it must have been.....and the resemblance is striking;-o.
    In Kerala we have something called the 'Kudumba Yogam' literally meaning family meeting. A family will post a notice in the newspaper[usually] tht they are 'going to have a meeting in a particular place. Everybody connected to this family is welcome' kind of advertisement. The family name will be the keyword. These meetings are held once in 2, 5 or 10 yrs.
    Everybody connected with tht family name will attend & there we get to meet a lot of relatives whom we wd have never seen before:-)). Other than tht there is a site called genidotcom which is like FB but for families. I set tht up for my FIL and he was most thrilled with it;-D

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    1. wow- that is so interesting- see....these are ways to figure out family links and lines!!!!

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