Great Great, Thrice Removed

“Put your contact information on this sheet if you are interested in the upcoming family history course” the woman at the front of the classroom said.  When the paper got around to me I wrote my name and email address on it without hesitation.  I felt that finally a motivator to help me learn about my ancestors arrived.  Among other reasons, helping FamilySearch (a genealogy website) digitize census records made me want to find out more about my ancestors.   Once, when I asked my uncle and grandma how much is known about our family and how far back, they told a few stories and gave a vague sense that everything is researched already—apparently all the way back to Adam.  My uncle was nice enough to give me a Personal Ancestral File documenting the family tree on my father’s side, but that doesn’t mean I can automatically translate those names to lives and photographs.  So with the opportunity to take a course, I figure now is as good a time as any to start down my own path of genealogical research.  Who knows what I will discover, but it’s bound to be illuminating.