Your Ancestry on Labor Day
In July of 2008 I joined Ancestry.com – well, joined may not be the right word since I didn’t buy the subscription – just registered for the free version. I did it because my mother had just passed away and I felt the need to record all the things I should have done years ago. Ancestry.com was great. With it I have connected with distant cousins and feel good about putting down information for my kids in the future. I was fortunate that various family members had sent me their genealogy research and all I had to do was plug in the information. From time to time Ancestry.com will offer freebies – such as this weekend (now through midnight Sept. 3) they are letting you view ALL census information (through 1940) even if you are not a paid member (you do have to at least use the free version). I plan to use it a LOT to attach census information to everyone I can this weekend.
I share this information because I think recording your family tree is valuable, and this is an instance where technology can be a huge help. I am not really that big into the whole genealogy thing (I don’t travel the countryside looking at gravestones). After my initial burst of energy I find that my work on it comes in spurts every few months, usually after a distant cousin contacts me with a question.
I feel good about doing this not only for myself, but also for my children. I wish I had done this while my mom was still alive, but back then I thought I had forever.
Check out Ancestry.com this weekend – you just might like it!
Free this weekend? I might do that.
I was a paid member for about a year (then it got too expensive with me out of work) and I loved it tremendously. For a long time growing up I envied friends who could trace their families back generations upon generations. We didn't have a family historian at that point and I became the de facto one once I joined Ancestry. Thanks for the heads up for this weekend. I'll certainly poke around and see if I can find any new information!
Thanks for telling us! I've got some research to do. 🙂
That does sound fun! My maiden name means drunk or drink in Scotland… It would be quite interesting to figure out the ancestors haha. Thanks for sharing this.