Background
My interest in Family History, and in particular the stories of our family, probably began at birth. But they peaked in 2003 after my Grandma, Bula Lathem, passed away. Grandma was my best friend, and I missed her desparately. Sorting through the bits of paper, photos, and treasures in her home, I discovered a way to keep her with me - through the stories of our past.
What started out as a Preservation Project focused mainly on protecting and cataloging thousands of photographs and papers grew exponentially in December, 2009, when my brother bought me the computer program Family Tree Maker, entrusted his amazing research from years before to me, and I subscribed to Ancestry.ca. Suddenly I could be connected with the past on a whole new level. I could tie the names and faces that look out at me from my Grandma's photos to one another. Stories grew. Two dimensional images became real. My family grew.
Today, I have an unquenchable thirst for more. Our family tree has grown to almost 10,000 people and includes stories of hardship and desparation, great wealth and prosperity, royalty, witches, heros, scholars, victims of murder, and murderers (?)...
Who ? What ? Where ? Why ?
Am I limiting myself to just my Grandma Lathem's side of the family? No, not in the least. I have been truly blessed with a very large complex family structure that has given me an amazing foundation in life. Blood may be thicker than water, but love is the strongest bond of all. It is difficult to summarize the area of my "research", but here's just a sample:
Lathem/Latham - Lefave/Lefebvre - Martin - Reid - Dyelle/Diel/Deyelle - Hammond - Black - Brown - Sparling - McCauley - Telford....
Good - Lee - Bradfield - Davies - Morgan .....
Jenkins - Millican - Thwaites - Greer - Hancock - Van Alstyne/Van Alstine....
Witches of Salem, Orangemen, WW1 and WW2 veterans, IOOF....
Northern Ontario, Pontiac Quebec, Northern Ireland, Wales, United States
The list is endless, thank heavens.
Going Forward
I want to continue seeking the stories and preserving the past. In 2012 I'm hoping to get some help from my extended family. Who better to help tell the stories than people who lived them ? This blog will hopefully help with that.
I also need to continue my preservation of the documents and photos. That's something I'll be writing about. I'm not simply organizing, but I'm attempting to clean each item using restoration and archival techniques, then scan them at a high resolution, document and catalogue, and store in a manner that preserves them for the long term. The intent being that once things are scanned, I can share them with an infinite number of people.
Finally, this blog. I've started it so I can share the stories, the photos, and what I'm learning as I continue on this journey. The internet is an incredible source of information. Whether it's obituaries from the early 1900's, newspapers from the 1800's, or photographs of people half a world, and a century away - there's an endless source of data and connection out there. I learn new sources of that information on an almost daily basis, and look forward to sharing each source with those who may be interested.
