Everyone Has a Story

I recently became involved in a large genealogy project through my church. They are in the process of transferring millions, actually billions (I think) of census records and other genealogical records into digital files. This will make searching out ancestors so much more accessible for millions of people. They are partnering with Ancestry.com and I think some other family search sites to accomplish this. It's a huge work and a great thing to be a part of. If you are interested in learning more and looking up some of your ancestors, click here. Trust me, you'll get hooked!

As a volunteer indexer, I go in and pull up a census record with about 50 names on it and basically enter the data from that portion of the census into preset fields. Doesn't sound very exciting, but it's actually very interesting. I find myself stopping and looking at the names of these people who were living in the early 1900s and wondering what their story was. Why were they single? Why did they have no kids? How did they survive with so many kids?! What was their immigration story? It's so interesting to think about. If you are interested in doing indexing work click here. Anyone can do it. There is an online tutorial that walks you through the process. It's pretty easy to pick up and a very worthwhile thing to do.

Anyway, this experience has really got me to thinking about how important it is to keep good records and journals for our loved ones who come after us. I've never been good at keeping a diary or a journal, but for some reason blogging is easier for me to keep up with. Maybe it's the idea that I know my friends and loved ones are actually reading it now. I'm not just writing on a blank page and wondering if anyone will ever find it some day.

I'm glad to be blogging because even though some of my posts are sort of silly or don't seem that important today, someday it will be nice for my kids and grand kids to have these things recorded and get a little glimpse of what life was like for us.

I haven't done this yet, but you can get your blog made into a book. I've seen a couple and they are great. What a fantastic little piece of family history. So, if you are not a blogger yet, you should get on the band wagon! :) You can make blogs as accessible or non-accessible to the public as you would like.

Everyone has a story. Here's a glimpse of mine:

My mom and dad as newlyweds.

and with their young family.

Soon after I came into the picture with all of my siblings and sister-in-law Lora.


My eternal companion

Starting our family

A little crazy, but very happy!