I spent a week with my folks and took the opportunity to gather more information about some of my distant relatives. The genealogical web sites like ancestry.com, rootsweb.com and heritage quest are very useful, especialy having access to United States Census records. But it was especially helpful to be able ask my Dad about where people lived to narrow down the possibilities. It also made me realize how important it is to be methodical, so I spent a good bit of time updating my records (I use Reunion) to include citations to the specific sources of information. Wherever possible I included links to the source material and copies on my own genealogical site, including:
- census for residence, age, occupation, year of immigration:
- draft registration for both World Wars
- some passenger ship arrival records (for which the census is invaluable)
- headstones, where I have photographs
- other vital records, such as deaths and marriages.
It has been about 10 years since I started working on genealogy, and there is always more to uncover. Kind of like a personal jigsaw puzzle.