It was January 1977 when I got my first taste of genealogy. A mini-series called Roots appeared on ABC. It was an 8 episode television program airing every day with viewership estimated at 130-140 million people. At the time, there were only 221 million people in the U.S., so 60% or so. It was the story of Alex Haley and his research into where he had come from. I loved that show! I’ve seen many other references to this TV show that sparked interest in researching a family tree, it certainly did for me.
My three older brothers were out of the house by the time this show came on TV; Ken was in the Navy, Mike was at Central Michigan University, and Greg (2G) was in the Army. My mom, dad, little sister Janet, and I watched the shows. I remember asking my dad how much he knew about where our family came from. He knew a lot! He knew most of the family from his grandparents down; uncles, aunts, cousins and so on. He had also heard a family story that tells about our family first coming to New Jersey from Wales, migrating into Ontario, and then coming to Michigan. Nothing specific but a cool story nonetheless. After I picked his brain (and my mom’s too about her side of the family), he thought I should talk to living family members to see what they knew. He was instrumental in the research; he set up a bunch of get togethers with family over the course of the year and he also found a template that I could use to capture the information I gathered as I interviewed everyone. I don’t know where he got it, but he took it to work and Xerox’d it 100 times. I still have those sheets today, most filled out that same year. Below is the sheet where I filled out the details for my great grandfather.
We had a lot of fun that year gathering and documenting what we could. No one had ever put this information on paper so it was organized and easy to share.
For Christmas that year in 1977, I received one of my favorite gifts — a family tree poster that I could fill out as I learned each of the entries. Below is what it looks like today. It took a while to know the entries and I’m still not done after nearly 45 years. (I have details on my mom’s side filled out too, but I didn’t share the whole view.) At the top are my dad’s 16 great-great grandparents. My goal was and still is to fill in each of the last names. I find it amazing to see all the different names on this sheet.
There’s more of the story to tell which I will do in upcoming posts.
A lot of history that is.