Lesson # 1

I think it was one of my co-workers who got me really going on my genealogy obsession. It was either his influence, or it was an upcoming family reunion which got me started. Either way, when I got started, I rarely slowed down!

One of the first things I did was contact an aunt whose family had done quite a bit of research on our different family lines. There was quite a bit of information on the Carmichael line of our ancestry. My aunt's paternal grandmother was a Carmichael and had lived next door to her when my aunt was a child. She had heard many of the stories of her grandmother's childhood and her great grandfather's adult life. The family of Moses Allen Carmichael had lived in that part of Northern California since the 1870's. Some of his descendants continue to live there to this day!

The result of the phone call was a few names I didn't have and some stories I never knew. One of the names which was most important to me was the name of my great grandfather, Melville Williams.

Knowing his name and where he lived in 1920 led me straight to Ancestry.com to look for him in the US Census. And I found him, along with the whole family! The census indicated he was born around 1857 in Indiana with a father from Pennsylvania and a mother from Ohio. So I quickly turned to the 1910 US Census to find him there. Once discovered in 1910, I searched for the family in the 1900 census, but they were not to be found in the sparsely populated area of northeast California. This time they were showing up in southern Missouri! This was surprising and confusing to me. I had discovered a family sojourn about which I had not known. Sometime later I mentioned this finding at a family reunion. I was presented with a nice, "Duh!" answer and given a piece of the story. It seems his mother had asked him to move back to Missouri. The only reason he moved back to California was for health reasons. I received this information from an uncle whom I hadn't contacted before.

The lesson I learned from this venture was to present findings and ask questions. A discovery on death certificate, marriage certificate, birth certificate or other official document can give great clues toward uncovering fascinating family stories.

The Journey Began...

I've always been interested in my family history. I can remember as a tween and a teen asking my father where our Williams family came from. His answer was, "The British isles. We are mutts." But the conversation never went much further. And I never learned much more about my family history. Which is sad, because most of my grandparents were alive at that time. How I wish I would have sat down with them and asked them some questions! But I started my journey after only one grandparent remained and after she was suffering from the middle stages of Alzheimer's.

So I started this journey like I start many things, I jumped in head first with only minimal direction. I used Google, Ancestry.com, and whatever else I could find on the Internet. I called aunts and uncles and began searching for other distant relatives who might know more about the family than I did. I wrote e-mails,letters and paid for professional research. If I would have kept track of the time and the dollars, I think I would be a bit concerned about their sums. I know my wife is!

I am writing this blog to share some of the things I've learned that work in research and some of the things I've discovered. I'll also share what has happened as I have helped some friends and coworkers with some of their family history research.

I hope you enjoy my journey!