Vacation ???

I promised to tell you about my cross country trip in my last blog so here we go. I will be leaving the beginning of September in my van with my mom and step-dad for a four week adventure in family research. As family research has been my interest for the last 30 + years I love to get in the car and head across county to meet family I would never have known if I had not taken on this endeavor. An endeavor it is too. If I say to you I am heading out on a vacation you think maybe Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Disneyland or Europe (ok not in the car). You do not think of hours in a van to trample through cemeteries, meet people you do not know in hopes you like them and they like you, hours in a library or historical center when the sun is beautiful outside, driving through towns looking for address that may have changed or homes that may have been torn down, finding county buildings that hold vital records and even tornados. Now that may not be your idea of fun. Don’t get me wrong I love the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Disneyland and Europe. That will all be there for another day but I do love my research. It is like a big puzzle that you are not sure where it will take you. Half the adventure is getting there. As we travel we will see the beautiful United States. Many people travel out of the country never seeing our own. Sometimes you just need to look in your own back yard and see the beauty in it. There are many places we look forward to seeing and enjoying. We will be leaving Washington heading to California – Arizona - New Mexico – Texas – Oklahoma – Louisiana – Mississippi – Arkansas – Tennessee – Iowa – Minnesota - South Dakota - North Dakota and then west home. I will be blogging as we travel so you can watch our progress. My goal each evening is to tell you all about our day; this will depend on internet availability. So please join us on our adventure, even if it is just through our words. I will announce the date here as soon as we decided the exact day we will be leaving. Keep checking back!

Research tip: Now that you have decided to research your family you need to decided which parent / grandparent you want to start with. Pick your mom or dad and then pick their mom or dad. Start slow, do not try to do everyone at one time. It will make you crazy.

The Beginning 2

As you can see I have been a little slow on my journey into blogging. So after some thought here is round 2. Tim (my husband) and I have been in Nanaimo Canada on Vancouver Island for a little R&R. This is a getaway where we go for walks, bike riding, boating, drives, work on the computer or read a book. Ok, Tim does the boating and biking and I do a little walking and lots of reading and computer work. Never seem to take the time at home to read a book. I brought up a couple of boxes (yes, boxes) of family history papers I needed to straighten out, put into my computer and then file or get rid of.
It has taken hours to complete but now is organized. At least these boxes, I have many more at home. I am getting ready to do a cross country family research trip this September and need to be ready. More on that tomorrow. This trip Tim has done lots of crabbing and exploring the islands on his boat. We had friends come up from the States, had a great Crab dinner, watched the Canadian Snowbirds air show and had a great visit. It is amazing that it takes us all going on vacation to get together. This morning Tim and I went for a nice long walk in the wonderful sunshine.










Keep checking back as I will get better at this blogging thing. I will share with you about our trip and tips on doing your own family research.

Today’s family research tip: Make time to meet with the older members of your family to get their stories and memories down on paper,recorder or video.

Have A Great Day

The Beginning

This is the beginning of my journey into blogging. I will put a variety of things on but most will be of my travels and family research. Like all journeys you never know where you may end up. So come with me and let’s see where we go.