So I went to a genealogy conference and a woman, more knowledgeable then myself, gave some great advice about setting up a pretty "family tree" blog for your family. Since I had lots and lots of information on my Dad's father's family I did just that. A cousin had done a lot of research on that particular family. I spent a lot of time putting the data on-line and felt it was just names on a family tree - so the blog is helping me put some life into all those names....
But on my mother's side - well, why start a genealogy/family tree blog when I have so little information that I'm working with. But the other night when I stayed up until midnight working on just one person in that small family tree it hit me. I'm spending a lot of time and worry trying to find out information about Mary Blehl. And, if I do find this information out, I'll then enter her name on the on-line genealogical site and no one but me will know why I spent so much time that night trying to track down her story. If I do all this work and don't share it with anyone then what's the benefit - just to myself? Hmm.... So I think it might make sense to keep track of the story of trying to find out more about my Mom's family. Maybe I'll find a lot, maybe I'll spend hours on just one person. Who really knows. But if nothing else at some point my kids can read this and know some more about their family history... And the work it took to gather it....
So, in the beginning. I spent my childhood thinking my mom was adopted by the "grandparents" we would rarely visit. Made sense - never questioned it. Then suddenly in my late 20's out of nowhere - it hit me - if she was adopted why did she have a different last name then them? My sister and I were adopted by my Mom's second husband and we got new birth certificates and had to legally change our names - same thing would have happened to her, right? So, no, it seemed to me she must not have been adopted. So, without talking to my Mom, I joined the state geneaology society and sent a letter to the state asking for a copy of her birth certicate. Based on my birth certificate I provided her name, date of birth and city of birth. I waited and I waited to hear back from the state. I'd say it had to be like 6 months before I heard back from them. When I got it - it was quite interesting - date of birth was off by one day. City of birth was different - because her place of birth was actually a home for unwed mothers on the other side of the state. And, as odd as it sounds, her mothers name was her exact name. Well this was quite unexpected. It also had her mom's address on it - East Haven, CT. (And many kudos to the unknown employee at the state who must have had to do quite a bit of work to track this birth certificate down...)
So, since I had a job with a lot of vacation and I did not yet have any kids, I had a lot of free time on my hands. Off I went to the State Library to use this great resource called the "City Directory." Back in the 1930's/1940's and I think even through the 1950's the directory would list all folks living on a street by their address. So, you could look up 123 Main St and find who lived there. And if someone moved in a particular year it would tell you where they moved to. So, you could continue to follow them from address to address. So, I started following the Blake family of East Haven CT through many years worth of city directories. Ends up my grandmother had to be one of at least 10-12 kids - mostly girls. They would get married and move to neighboring towns and I would keep following them through the city directories. Then they'd have kids and I'd follow them too.... When I came to the end of the City Directory era I figured I'd take a chance and look to see if any of these people still lived in the same houses today by just looking them up in the phone book. Well don't you know....
I sent a couple of letters off - you know "Hi, you don't know me, but I think we are related...." And, as luck would have it, I struck gold. I found one of my Mom's first cousins who lived in the town next to me. That seems so long ago now. My mom was beyond excited that she had "real" family - her foster parents were not the nicest of folks. Unfortunately her Mom had passed away years before, but she was still happy to find her cousins and a connection she didn't have before. And I have since developed a great relationship with this cousin and I see her often as we now live in the same town.
So many years have gone by and I renewed my genealogy membership again and I am now trying to fill in the Blake family tree. More on how far I've gotten next time.....
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