The one thing nice about the holidays is that you get together with family and some of your family's families. You start talking about lots of things and usually familiy ties comes into the conversation. For me it's always nice when some extended/distant relative comes up to you and and says I hear your working on the family tree. It's even nicer when they say that they have information that they love to share. Then of course you get one of the closer relatives that knew you were working on a tree but didn't know how extent is was. Then they want to get in on it. Since Christmas, I have been working on one of the branches I received new information about. On this line it is that of my sister-in-law's family. I started with the easier of the two relatives. My sister-in-law gave me some great information on her side. I send her what I've been finding but stressed that we need to confirm it. I get the email back that says "wow that was fast" and "this is fun"

I've been married to my husband for 4 years, my sister-in-law has been married to my brother-in-law for 25 years. I am the newcomer. We have always gotten along, but working her family tree is placing a bond between us; one I very much welcome.

Working on your family tree can be very fun, very interesting, very frustrating but most of all a great learning experience. It's a way to meet and get to know relatives near and far. Get your relatives to feel just a little bit of the high you get from doing genealogy and believe me they will be willing to share...

Happy New Year!

My name is Kelly, and I have been researching my family since 1996. I first became fascinated with it when my Uncle Edward was researching our family and gave us a copy of our tree; I think I was 12 at the time. My Uncle passed away in 1996 and it was then I decided to take over where he had left off. While going through his notes, I found that he and his father and been looking for answers in the early 1950's. Since I have been doing this, I have found so many answers to the things that had searched for. My Uncle would be amazed at what the Internet could do today and how it has made more accessible information then writing to all those vital records departments and waiting weeks on end for answers. Every time I find something new, I know he's proud of my accomplishments  in learning about our heritage. My children at first asked me why do I do this. Aside from telling them that I enjoy it so much, I tell them I'm finding the answers for them. Everyone should be proud of where they came from. I am proud of where I came from and I wish for them to be also. There is so much to learn and it is so much fun. Genealogy research, is one of the things I do that makes me happy.

The only advice I can give is to not get discouraged, don't give up. If searching has brought you to a dead end, take another branch, research that and then go back. If you concentrate soley on one person, you will get frustrated and you won't want to research anymore. Things will come together and you'll find new branches on your tree to look for. Another thing is to make sure the information you find are facts before posting. There is nothing worse then getting information from someone who didn't check it out. I see too many times and it's usually the searcher that have 30,000-50,000 names in their tree that don't have the correct information. I have about 4000 names in my tree, but I know all those names because I've researched everyone of them. I have a bunch waiting on the sidelines, but until I can prove they belong there, that's where they'll stay.