Looking to the past...looking to the future!

My recent preoccupation with Pinterest has led me down some interesting bunny trails in the last few months. When I started a board for genealogy, I had no idea it would grow like it did, and it has led me to some interesting places.

When I first became interested in genealogy, like around 2004 or 2005, I avidly researched and drew up a family tree chart and tried to fill it in as completely as possible. In the last 7 or 8 years I have been able to add very little new data to our family tree. I was beginning to believe I had exhausted my resources and made all the discoveries I was able to make.

Enter Pinterest board for genealogy! It now has 146 pins, many of which I have yet to read, and more are being added daily.

I finally decided I needed to actually read some of those pins. It was like buying books but never reading them. In the reading of one pin, I discovered a FREE website called FamilySearch.org. It is hosted by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints who have an enormous repository of genealogical records and family trees. And I have to say I was very impressed.

I began by filling out the family tree provided on the site. It wasn't long before it began to populate itself as the site was able to find my ancestors and add information stored in their archives about them. In very little time, like maybe an hour, my family tree was many generations long.

My one concern was where the information provided had come from. One good way to verify your own information is to compare it to other trees with the same people and see if you agree. I have put my family tree out there on another site and was concerned that someone had copied my information, errors and all, and I was getting my own tree back. But I soon discovered small errors in their work and realized it was not my research. 

It might cross your mind to wonder how I can be sure it was the other records that are wrong and not mine. The answer to that is documentation...I have the first-hand knowledge of these people and the records to back up my information. In many instances I am not certain of my information, and at that point I check out their documentation to see what they support their claims with. If their claim seems solid, I amend my records. But when your great grandparents have lived in Keya Paha County all their adult lives, leaving behind a wealth of knowledge about them even though I never met them personally, I am pretty sure of my facts.

Through this awesome website, I have been able to grow my family tree in many directions...and I am only getting started with it. I was able to fill in one branch of the family tree back to the time of Christ. I have no idea if that was correct or not, but I'm not exactly sure how anyone can accurately trace their lineage back through 100 generations with any accuracy. I mean, where do you go to find those kinds of records? But it was an interesting concept to see all those generations listed and see the dates and locations whether it was correct or not.

The first day I discovered this website I was so excited. I was sharing my find with Mike over supper that first evening, telling him how I was able to verify so much of my research and sharing a few new discoveries. To me this is big! He responded, "That's nice, please pass the salt." Not a genealogist bone in his body!!

Studying the family tree is an interesting study to say the least. Each branch of the family tree will eventually become a tree of its own, which will in turn spawn more branches that will eventually grow more trees. It's the never-ending circle of life.

Our family tree continues to fill out and gain more branches. On April 1st our grandson, Matthew added a new little twig to his own branch which is now becoming a tree. He and his wife Marisa gave birth to little Bentley Maddox. Yes, we are great-grandparents, again! In November 2015, Matt's son Maverick James was born...the perfect clone of his father.

In my last genealogy post I mentioned how Levi Painter's family tree has now grown to over 1000 descendants. Well it's going to take us longer to reach that 1000 family member statistic, but we are on our way. Our family, including in-laws, now numbers 25.

With Mike and I being generation one of our family tree, we can be certain that generation two, our kids, is a finished generation. Their kids are generation three, and we are about 95% sure that generation is complete, although there is always a chance for another child there. We are now populating generation four, in fact only getting started there. I figure the potential for many descendants is pretty great there with 14 grandchildren, most of whom aren't even thinking about children yet. 

Christmas 2014 with all 14 grandchildren present

It has been my tradition to present each grandchild a crocheted baby afghan when they are born. I foresee that there is going to come a time when this 4th generation is going to start arriving in droves so I'm thinking I need to be crocheting baby afghans to keep in ready so I don't get overwhelmed at some future time. By my calculations we could eventually have 40 great grandchildren.

As always, when I think about genealogy and family trees and legacy, I am almost overwhelmed at the enormity of the consequences of our actions. My "family wall" says it best: "Happily ever after...all because two people fell in love". And history was made!