February 1 – Observe Black History Month

Read Alex Haley’s Roots (Random House, out of print). Although its research has been disputed, this book and the TV miniseries it inspired are often credited with sparking genealogy’s popularity boom.

I must admit, it sparked the genealogy bug in me. I remember watching this series with my mother and marveled how nice it would be to know my own family history like that. However, it also intimidated me, because my efforts were not giving me the results that Mr. Haley seems to have gotten. Good thing for me, it didn’t stop me from trying. When my first few attempts of trying to obtain information failed, I resorted to reading beginners books on genealogy from the library. This helped me realize that doing genealogy work was going to take more effort than what I had put into it. So 28 years later, I have collected over 11,000 names in my family tree, about 1,000 names in my half siblings tree (their father’s side only) and few 100 names in my husband’s family tree. I have files filled with census records, obituaries, vital records, birth announcements, death cards, marriage invitations, graduation cards, and more. Looking back onto that 14 year old who marveled at the Roots miniseries and then the 20 year old who started her own genealogy research project to today, I would never have guess that I would know so much about genealogy. However, there is so much more to learn. Not just about my family, but about genealogy in general. I haven’t used all the resources that are available and things are changing in the technology world involving genealogy. So much to learn and so little time to learn it in, I just love my