A number of years ago we were going to travel to New York and one of our stops on the tour was Ellis Island. I just knew my dad's maternal family came through there.
Wrong.
They came through Boston. It took a quite a bit of research to find this out, but I finally did. I'm am, of course, struggling with the research because I have no family members alive since my folks were older when they had me and most of the family was gone by then.
Of course being frugal, I wasn't going to pay to join a site to do research so I have been relying on free stuff here and there. I found the site familysearch.org which is run by the church of Latter Day Saints. I work on this here and there and add whenever I find something. Our local history room at the library has the local newspaper archive computer site free for patrons so I have been spending hours there looking up people in the family.
Well, the other day I received an email from the site saying I had relatives in Colonial America. I took the time to look at this and sure enough I do. That was pretty exciting in an of itself. But then I clicked further and apparently there is a long list of folks from knights to kings and queens of small countries and all the way back to Emperor Charlemagne. Wow! I teased my husband he should treat me like her royal highness. He teased me back about getting a tiara and I said that was a given, but not sure where I would wear it since I don't attend balls or political events. Somehow a tiara going to thrift shops and volunteering at church seems like overkill.
Seriously, it was all pretty interesting. And other than my time, free. Is it going to change my life? Probably not. But it was fun. Cheap fun. And I'm certainly going to get some mileage out of it by telling folks. Just wish some of my rich relatives had left me some money!
I am royalty?
February 19th, 2018 at 04:07 pm
February 19th, 2018 at 04:28 pm 1519057694
I am a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.
So much fun!!
February 19th, 2018 at 08:04 pm 1519070666
February 19th, 2018 at 08:32 pm 1519072370
The same if you live near a university. My university allows the public to get library cards and I think that means that they can access databases while on campus.
February 19th, 2018 at 08:42 pm 1519072974
February 19th, 2018 at 08:43 pm 1519072994
Jokeabee, I didn't realize that about the university library. I will have to check that out.
Laura, you and I can wear our tiaras together!
February 19th, 2018 at 09:44 pm 1519076696
February 20th, 2018 at 06:37 pm 1519151867