I am out of my comfort zone. It has literally taken me 40 minutes to get to this page. First, I had to come up with a title. A title?! What's with that? I don't title my journal entries. Not being creative, I immediately hit a brick wall and nearly gave up before I even started. I finally mastered through the fear and simply went with "My Journey". See.....no creativity. THEN, I couldn't find an address that wasn't already used. There must be a ton of people who blog. I admit that I keep boring journals and it takes more time to write than it does to type. I want to learn to be better acquainted with technology. Hence, my attempt to blog.
First, a little about myself. I don't like change. I fear it. But I live in a world that is changing constantly and I am getting left behind. In itself I don't mind that. I am not ambitious. My idea of fun is sitting and watching the clouds float by. Boring to this fast-paced, technology-based generation of today. But this last weekend I attended RootsTech in Salt Lake City with my sister, Lorrie. It has inspired me to actually do something.
When my dad died, we discovered lots of old pictures. Mostly they consist of ancestors. I have always been interested in ancestors but always seemed to have an excuse not to seek them. With ten children to raise, it was hard to find time to spend on doing genealogy work. It was discouraging to think of spending ten years to find one person and pay 50 dollars for one document to prove that individual to be an ancestor. But that excuse is gone now. The kids are grown and almost all gone from home now. Technology has made finding people so much easier and there are so many more people with whom to collaborate findings and share information. I have collected bits and pieces now and again of family histories and genealogy work, but have never done anything really serious. Time for change. Scary.
At RootsTech we were taught that we need to do four things: 1-Find, 2-Organize, 3-Preserve, 4-Share. There were many classes that gave ideas and tips how to accomplish this. I know that what I get done in the remainder of my lifetime won't be much, but I hope that some of my kids will catch the genealogy bug and pick up where I leave off and take things to a whole new level. My attempt is going to be finding and organizing. Along the way I will share information with family members. My idea of preserving is scanning. But there are so many creative and fun ways to preserve and share. I'll leave that to my creative children and their spouses. I have two daughters-in-law that are super creative and can do amazing things. I have already asked Miranda to scan and fix many pictures and documents. It is a blessing to me that she lives in the same area and can help me. Jessica makes me wonderful calendars with family pictures. They are great treasures and one of the tips that belong to preserving. Boys....you married well!
Now for my journey. When I travel to visit family, I have tried to make it so that I don't travel on Sundays. Many times I have to do that, but I like it better when I don't. So I will do my "traveling" during the week and leave Sunday for blogging. This week then, is the week that I decided to make my journey. One of the fun things about the journey is that I can "travel" with other family members at any time. Lorrie will be going, also. She is addicted to research and I couldn't find a better companion. Her contributions will be obvious. I'm still trying to figure what I can contribute. I love how so many can go in different directions, and by sharing, we all make the same journey. My goal this week is to get my Legacy software onto my laptop and become acquainted with it. This would be a great time to visit my cousin, Debbie Lloyd, who has done a lot of research in the past. I hope I can make a visit to her this week. I should call her today. And this week is the week to get what information Mom has so I can begin to map my journey.
Side note: One of the remarks made by one of the presenters was to ask yourself what it is that you wished your ancestors had left for you. Then ask yourself what it is that you think your descendants will have wished you left for them. Food for thought.
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