Finding Our Ancestors Celebration

Two years ago today I started blogging about my family history research on Blogger. A few months later, I decided I liked the looks of WordPress and made a quick change to my blog. I loved that WordPress made it so easy to upload all my information from Blogger. All I had to do was go in and retag all of my posts. Not so difficult back then. Today, I would like to retag the whole blog, but I do not have the time to spare for this project. I leave that for the future when I decide to make the move and host my blog.

Taking a look at the past two years here is what I have accomplished with my research, blogging and life in general.

Research:

  • My brickwall remains to be John O’Connell,  but thanks to various people (readers and friends on GenealogyWise) I am making progress.
  • I have the documentation and paperwork filled out for my son to join the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) through one of my maternal lines.
  • I am slowly working on my application for the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), this is much harder than the SAR and will take much more work.
  • I have been able to make contact with many new cousins through many different avenues (ancestry.com, GenealogyWise, twitter and here.
  • I have met 1 of those cousins last year while on a college road trip, Bob was gracious enough to take me around to all the different cemeteries where our ancestors are buried. He also introduced me to another gentleman with whom I am distantly related to. On this trip I also left word at a home for someone from my Richmond family to call me. My  maternal Grandfather’s 1st cousin called and we had a wonderful conversation. She shared many family stories with me. I hope to be able to meet her in the future.
  • With the use of Newspaper Archives, I have been able to construct a rather large extended tree on my O’Connnell line. In doing this I was able to find my paternal Grandfather’s cousins and was able to meet them as well. Since returning home from home from this trip I have been able to construct another branch of the O’Connell family as well.
  • Thanks to my brother-in-law we have made progress in his Russian line, I thought this day would never come!

Blogging:

  • Reader Dawn has commented on my Surnames page numerous times and states that we are very similar in appearance. She has given me some information that I am following up with on John O’Connell. I look forward to her emailing me a photo of her so that I can see the similarities as well.
  • Readership has gone up steadily since I started blogging and I am grateful for everyone out there that continues to come back and read.
  • Life keeps me (and you) busy, but I am trying to get into a better pattern for posting to my blog.
  • I have made many friends in this community.

Life:

  • We have welcomed 2 great-nephews, a great-niece  and (2) cousins once removed into the family.
  • We have two nephews who just got engaged.
  • We lost 2 great aunts and a grandmother.
  • Lost a job and started a new job.
  • I complete 8 of my 9 classes from NIGS and I am going to start a 11 week photography class within the next two weeks.

Life is busy for all of us, and I thank you all for continuing to come back to read and leave comments. It means a lot to me.

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7 Comments

  1. Pat, thanks for the good wishes. I am so glad you like to read my blog.

    I wish that I had more time to spend researching and blogging. Hopefully, this year I will be able to dedicate some more time to it!

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