Ainscough,
Chalfant, Baglin/Bagley,
Cloud, Crawford, Crow,
Cunningham (my maiden name),
Durbin, Heaton,
Ksiazek, Ogier, Rasey,
Sarchet, Sargent, Sheeks
and Thompson.
If you have any information on these surnames,
want to check out what I have in my family tree outlines
or are just curious, please click on the underlined words and you'll be transported
to the family pages.
Just a word in explanation of the numbers
you see preceeding each name: they represent the generation numbers.
For example: On the Durbin Page, since Samuel Durbin and Ann Logsdon are the
first generation being recorded,
they are generation 1 (unnumbered). Their children are numbered "2" -- the
second generation.
Subsequently, the second generations' children are numbered "3" (third generation
from the original known ancestors)
and so on down the families.
Where there was more than one spouse,
the descendants from the first one will be listed
by generation beneath that spouse and then the next spouse's children will
come under him or her.
On some of the Charts, you may find a second wife or husband many lines down
from the first one
because that family was quite prolific! Please,
keep looking!
There are certain basic necessities required for growing a Family Tree.
In my opinion, the key word is "growing",
which includes finding out about yourself and your personal relationships
-- your past, present and future.
The discoveries you make could change your life. To that end let's look at a few of those necessary parts:
Write down what you know of your beginnings.
Naturally, the facts come first: when and where you were born, including the
time.
Who, besides your mother, was present?
Were you born in a hospital? At home?
Were you on time, overdue, or did you come surprisingly early?
Were there special health problems associated with your birth? Do they continue?
Be as detailed as you can.
If your mind wanders to special stories
you have been told about your birth, go ahead and write them NOW.
Don't wait until later when you may have forgotten them.
I remember being told that, as a third
daughter with no sons in the family, the nurse present at my birth said,
"Oh, no! Not another girl! But she gave me a lovely doll as a birth gift.
I wonder what she would have given me if I'd been a boy?
When you were born, were there special
ceremonies -- religious, tribal, familial -- that were conducted?
How did these ceremonies affect your parents? Have they affected you in your
maturation process and memories?
Do you remember any of them?
My very earliest memory is of my own
Baptism. Since I was under a year old at the time, for many years
I denied the possibility that this could be real. However, that is no longer
the case:
I know that the face of the minister who baptized me is imprinted on my consciousness
and
I feel the coolness of the water and the gentle firmness of his hand.
Perhaps my memory was forever impacted
because of the significance the ceremony holds for me and my family.
Who knows? Certainly, it is something I hold sacred.
Do you know where they were born? Write it down.
What is your relationship with them? This may be the time to let your thoughts expand and your feelings come forth.
Here, also, is the place for you to record
spouses or special friends of your siblings and their children.
Write their birth dates, birth locations and anything you especially remember
about them.
Being the youngest in the family, six
years behind my middle sister and nine behind my oldest, I often wanted
to participate in the things they were doing. Fortunately, these activities
frequently included Church plays,
Girl Scout badge projects and other things where a "baby" sister could have
a part.
The three of us shared a love of dolls and my middle sister and I made several paper dolls that I still have.
As is the case in many families, we do not live in close proximity. So, I treasure these small remembrances.
Traditionally, your "immediate" family
consists of the persons who are related to you and living in the same household.
However, in today's society, your immediate family may include others as well.
My "immediate family" consists of my
husband. But at one time, our household included our four children,
a dog, a couple of cats and whomever happened to be around to eat dinner or
bed down on the couch on any given night.
Three of the four children now are parents themselves; we have five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
These wonderful, sometimes frustrating
human beings have shared my life for many years and I am continually amazed
at the memories that keep flooding in, ones that I want to share with them
as I work on my own "growing" Tree.
As I find more information about myancestors,
I also find a deeper need to strengthen the present-day ties to my husband,
children grand amd great grandchildren.
Besides the basic questions of when and
where they were born, see if you can find out the attitudes,
personal habits and family values that are your inheritance.
Someone once said that when an elderly
person dies, a library ceases to exist.
Have you ever thought of your grandparents as being that full of "reference
material" and wisdom?
All four of my grandparents died while
I was between the ages of four and seven.
I never met my father's parents but I have some memories of my mother's.
My most vivid memory is of sitting
on my Grandfather's bed dressed in an angel costume and looking at his snowy,
white hair.
We actually have a snapshot of that moment, but it is not the photo that gives
me the recollection.
There is a feeling of being there and a certain glow as he looked at me with
such love.
I was named for his mother, and it is through him that I received my nickname
"Cindy."
How I wish I had been older when the
"libraries" that were my grandparents passed into the next life.
And how much I long to know about them and their memories!
Research! Research! Research!
Courthouse files, libraries, church records,
cemetery stones and registers, Census Reports, Citizenship Filings --
these are but some of the resources at your disposal.
If you are fortunate, there were those
in your family who collected and held onto letters, photographs, legal documents
and diaries from your ancestors. Perhaps there was even a genealogist among
them
who created a Family Tree from which you can work.
If you are like most people, however,
there search may be slow and painstaking.
Then, suddenly, a matching person appears, then another and another. And as
you fill in the blanks
and watch the growth of your Family Tree, a satisfaction like no other will
burst into your life.
My favorite source of ancestral research
material is my computer, a program called Family Tree Maker,
and the Internet itself. Through the latter my husband and I have been able
to connect with
relatives we never knew existed, literally "cousins by the dozens!".
We have "met" cousins several times
removed into whose Family Trees our information "grafted" and
filled in lacking information. And, we have opened channels of communication
in England and Wales
that otherwise would have been impossible for us to find.
Of course, since you are reading this,
you have discovered the WWW's resources yourself, and this is superfluous.
But if you have not searched for your family using this wonderful tool, get
busy!
I also plan to write of the events
that shaped my life and moments that my children probably do not remember
from their early childhood. Such things as waking my firstborn to have him
watch Neil Armstrong
take the first human step on the moon, my husband's pointing out to his oldest
child
the passing of "Sputnik" across the skies of Cantril,Iowa --
these are part of their "historic perspective."