Reaching Out

After a week's worth of intensive genealogical research on Ancestry.com's Library Edition (which is what I have access to), I have decided to get some help filling in some of the initial holes.

Facebook can be a beautiful thing.  I posted a plea for assistance as my status and got almost immediate results.  My father's cousin (2nd cousin, I suppose) Kathleen is the keeper of family stuff in the Baby Boomer generation.  She sent me not only new info (including some dates and information about her direct line.  Her grandfather and my great-grandmother were siblings), but also other people who have the same interest and could be of some help.  

I now know the following: 

- My great-great-grandfather died of carbon monoxide poisoning, due to an extinguished pilot light.

- Some of my relatives came over on the Alaska in 1888, the year of one of the worst winters on record in the United States.

- I have traced my grandfather's mother's side of the family to almost 1800 in Ireland.  

- My great-great-uncle was a golf champion who taught the New York Yankees to golf in the 1950s and 1960s.  

I am still struggling with:

- Both the McGee and the Bell lines.  With names as common as those, and first names as common as "John" and "William," I'm having difficulty creating effective search parameters. 

- I can't seem to get too many concrete dates.

- Information from a primary document of my grandmother's is not matching other information, nor is the other information matching itself.  

- My printer is acting up and not letting me print / scan.  Grr.

Reaching out to Kathleen and the family is one of the best things I've done thus far.  It is also nice to have an excuse to chat with these relatives, because I don't get to see them very often.  Aside from this genealogy project, I'm at midterms with both schools and I'm preparing for a regional academic conference with a totally different research project (The Magic Kingdom's changing depiction of history and the influence Walt Disney has on this viewpoint).  I always have a lot of "irons in the fire," as it were, and I'm usually happiest when working on a variety of projects, both academic and leisure.  

Above: My grandmother and two of my older cousins, ca. appr. Christmas 1983.

New Look, New Purpose

And I have returned. Again.

So much has changed, and my blogs are definitely reflecting that. I have met many of the goals I wanted to, as well as worked towards others. However, the goals are only a secondary part of this blog.

I have always been interested in my family's genealogy, as well as the art of genealogy in general, and a few years ago, I wanted to start working on my family tree. I had worked on my theatre group's "tree" a number of years ago, but obviously my real tree has a lot more purpose. The theatre tree helped me learn how to do the research in a confined and focused setting, teaching me about using non-traditional sources to conduct research. This has served me well in my journey into the family past.

My uncle, or my mother's brother, has done extensive work on my maternal side's history, so I have decided to focus my research on my father's side, which holds a lot of mystery due to the lack of living relatives. Fortunately, the McGee's and their branches love to talk, so I have a lot of resources in the current generations.

To begin my search, I just filled in the people I could into an ancestory.com family tree. I spoke mainly to my father to fill in blanks. Now I am using a free trial subscription to Ancestory.com's Library Edition (through La Salle University) to do extensive data research. I have discovered so many things. It's positively overwhelming.

This blog's primary purpose will be to reflect on my research methods, as well as telling some of the most interesting tales from my family. It will also help me remember my steps and where I am missing information.

After a trip to Staples this morning, I purchased a 2" binder and heavy-duty Avery tabs. I need these supplies to last me a long time, as well as withstand whatever travel I might need to make. I hope one day I can do some international traveling to my family's homelands (England and Ireland) to trace the family even further back.

I hope I can help other genealogists on their journeys' as well.

Above: My grandma and grandpa on their wedding day, June 26, 1950.