I started this blog to chronicle my many adventures in genealogy. I call it an adventure because it has taken me many places. I have been to several libraries, cemeteries, farms, old houses and even to Norway to uncover how I ended up being born in Joliet, Illinois in 1981. And in my research it's taken me many places and times that I knew very little about. I've caught a glimpse of what it was like for a farming family in Grundy County in the late 1800's, a boarding house run by a mother and daughter in downtown Morris and to countless places I knew very little about including Norway, Germany, England, Poland and Scotland. These are just a few of things I've been exposed to researching my own family and have seen ever more since I began researching my husband Scott's family heritage.
Typically, when I speak to family members or go into research centers, it's always a surprise to those I'm working with how young I am. I'm 28 years old now and I still get this reaction, but I have been doing this since I was 13 years old. It all started in Mr. Clark's 8th grade Social Studies class. We were assigned to do a family tree project, a typical assignment during the course of one's education. I know that my grandmother had spoken of stories of her family and her mother's family, but I hadn't paid attention to most of it and just accepted it as one of the many stories that were shared at nearly every family function. We had always been told her father had been part of a 9 brother baseball team, claiming to be the only one in the country at that time. We had heard of a long lost fortune of the Fergusons and Steeles, estimated at 60 million dollars and included a castle that had been in litigation for years in the early 1900's. The family had tried to claim the fortune and there was a torrid affair, a murder and a missing family bible with various inconsistent details that were all apart of the story.
When I started to organize all the information and things began to unfold, it was like discovering a treasure you never knew existed and hadn't been seen or appreciated for years. Those who I had interviewed to gain this information were all to eager to share this information and those who had were interested were eager to listen about what I had found. It felt like a very important job to share this information unknown to someone that had a hand in shaping who they were. Not only do the previous generations lives account for who we are, it has determined where we are and what kind of legacy we will leave for our future generations. It is even more important to me, to remember these people who are no longer here and for many family members didn't even know they existed.
Through the years, I have spent thousands of hours in the library, on the internet and talking to family members. Our trip to Norway took our search abroad and to the end of our line back to 1500s. We had a family reunion to share information. I took a few years off as a break to complete graduate school and lost a little interest in research for awhile. After getting married, I began to get interested in my husband's genealogy and traced his back very quickly and efficiently with the developments of internet research. This renewed my interest in our own family. After a promised trip to Scotland with my family, I began to get the bug again. The Enger history had been so abundant and so easy to find, that it was almost a shock to get stuck very early on with other branches of the family. But a part of the fun of genealogy is the challenge and digging through countless historical records and interviews with family members to find that one little piece of information that will lead you to an explosion of other information. I have taken a few side roads off the Ferguson branch when I hit a wall and when I have an idea to further my search I'd explore it. Usually I came up empty handed. Unfortunately, I'm still at the same wall, which brings me to the most recent genealogical developments in the last few days.
We decided to try our luck with a DNA test. After watching Who Do You Think You Are on NBC, it sounded like a viable option to possibly get some more information. Dad was tested and we've gotten our results and in turn found some 4th cousins that could be matches and the link to some more information to further our search. We're still waiting on contact, but it looks hopeful!
I wanted to start this blog to keep track of my search, share genealogy information in case there are other researchers can help and to help others start a family history search themselves.
The next few entries I will devote to what has been going on with the DNA results and post our own family information on the blog for family members and researchers to have access to.
-Sarah
