Why Am I Blogging

My husband Jim once said the fun in genealogy is solving the mysteries. He doesn't have the bug, but he nailed the attraction.

The fun is in tracking down clues that lead you to the elusive ancestor, the person that everyone in the family knew existed, and maybe even knew, but the information needed to trace him/her is so scattered, and incomplete, to make the person a mystery. My family had several that my elders had worked hard to trace, but Jim's had more, and no one had worked to find them.

All genealogists and family historians love the chase, and always want to share the stories of their hunts. Most of us have no outlet to do this because our families are either disinterested, sick of hearing them or less than thrilled with the amount of time we spend on our hobby. My husband even created a new verb to describe the time I spend on my computer - "Sweding" - coined the summer I spent practically every waking hour on Genline pouring over Swedish parish records.

This blog will be my place to share. Maybe something in it will help someone else. Maybe readers will just enjoy the stories. Maybe it will do nothing more than record my ramblings as I hunt.