Roots: The beginning of the epic journey

This is a new thing for me: my first blog, my first genealogical look at my family, and my first writing class at IPFW. Joy! And all in my senior year. What can I say? I've led a boring life.

My beginning goal for the project is to do a genealogical record as far back as I can go, which may be not very far at all (I explain why later), and then combine it with a theory that claims patterns of behavior are "inherited" from generation to generation like physical traits or skills or hobbies are. I'll probably just keep it in document form since I know nothing about making a web page, and somehow organize the project between the ancestral, cut-and-dry genealogy and the stories behind the facts.

So down to business: My first step was to obviously get as far as I could on my own with the family history. Let's just say it took me 20 minutes, and only because I couldn't remember my uncle Jim's ex-wife's name. So needless to say, I didn't have much to start with. My father's family is pretty much a dead end. Both of his parents are deceased, he has three brothers whom we never speak to because they are strange men and live at least 2 hours away, and my dad didn't even remember his mother's maiden name. "Dad, did grandma have any siblings?" "Ummm..ehhh..ok. I think she had some sisters." Thanks, daddy-o.

On my mom's side, she knew both my great-grand parents' names, no maiden names, though, but it was at least one generation further than dad's so it was welcome information.

So when I met with Suzanne, she informed me two things: I may dig up uncomfortable information about my family and I will need to do a lot of interviewing since I'm focusing so much on the stories. With both, I am cool, so as I get some interviews, I'll post again.