I've Known Grandpa My Whole Life

I was in the car with my son and we were having a conversation about interviews. My son said he gets nervous in an interviewing situation. I told him there was no need to be nervous, it is just like talking to grandpa. To which he replied,

     I've known grandpa my whole life

Music to my ears.

I grinned ear to ear and told him how happy that one sentence made me.

My love of genealogy is born from never having known my grandparents. It was my paternal grandmother who saved all the family pictures and left me the little clues like, "mama's cousin's baby" and "uncle Phil" and "Nellie". They were the nuggets that started my search to uncover the generation before my grandparents. 

I take great pleasure in getting to know each generation, tracking their lives 10 years at a time- sometimes more, sometimes less. I love the excitement I feel when I open up a census record where the recorder had beautiful handwriting and took the time to spell out first and last names. There is also the nervous anticipation when I see a recorder with chicken scratch and listing everyone by initials. I have spent years learning the history of locations or what an area was like during the time my subject lived there.

I love knowing my history.

I love researching and giving others the gift of their history.

Each person, each family, each generation has a story to tell.

I love a good story.