The People Behind Me

For years now I have wondered about my genealogy.  I am not into investigating my history with names and dates, but more along the lines of actual stories.  I talked with my family members in somewhat detail in trying to get something out of them.  For some reason ITS A BIG SECRET.  I know this sounds stupid but it is almost like pulling teeth when you ask about it.  They make you feel that they did the work, so now you need to.  NOT. 

So after a few discussions I decided to get on Ancestry.com.  I was curious and no one was going to ease that curiosity other than me.  As soon as I started entering in names, other names and information started popping up.  I couldn't go fast enough.  I didn't have enough time in the day.  I realized that someone had to put this information in beyond me, cause all I was doing was linking people to information that was already put in.  I had not done any research. 

A friend of mine was doing her genealogy at the same time I was and so we would compare notes periodically.  She would look at me with forelorn (do you like that word, it reminds of days gone past).  She had not found even close to the links I had.  I really have to contribute my genealogy to those individuals somewhere in the tree that had done their research and had put a lot of information in some database.  Beyond those individuals I am sure there are institutions, historians, and religions that have inputted information of what they have in their deep dark chasms.

Yes I will be the one that lets out the information to anyone that wants to know, I am a g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-daughter of Henry VIII.  I know it is hard to believe. I am also a decedent of all the kings and queens from every country possible in Europe from Denmark, Sweden to Turkey.  I am also a decedent of the pilot and doctor of the Mayflower.  I even found my way all the way to Adam and Eve (twice), now I don't know where you came from, at least I know I came from Adam and Eve.  It's these kinds of stories that intrigue me. 

It was hard to comprehend this entire thing when so many names came up.  I will never know all of their stories.  I will never understand how I was the great something grand daughter of a king, and now I am a pauper.  I don't even get that concept.

I have to laugh sometimes when I will see a private ancestry line and you have to email them to ask for information.  The one time I did that they sent me information I did not know about my own grandmother.  You feel so personally offended when someone has information about your own grandmother that you don't have, but then you realize that if my grandmother had 12 children (10 lived) with how many of them had 4-10 children and how many of them had 4-10, there is a lot of people that you are related to right now living that you don't even know. When you think of it in that way, this world seems so small and so large at the same time. 

Now since I know my ancestry is linked with so many known individuals, I look at history in a whole different way. 

I am so grateful to so many that really did this research, and that enjoyed sharing.  That is what Ancestry.Com is all about or any other genealogy site, is sharing.