I have been researching my family history off and on since 1996.  I can’t seem to limit myself to any particular line, nor even to just my own family! I’ve enjoyed researching my husband’s family, my daughter-in-law’s family, my brother-in-law’s family, even helping friends get started with their own research, but I always come back to my own maternal and paternal lines and the stories therein.

I am a retired librarian, who formerly lived in rural Alberta, Canada. We moved to Ottawa, Ontario, in 2013 to live near our children and grandchildren. My other interests include quilting,  papercrafts, my grandchildren, and volunteer work.  I’m never bored or wondering  “What to do today?”  

This blog was inspired by another one, called A Sense of Face. The writer, Rebecca, has captured the reasons I do genealogy better than I could ever express them. That blog seems to be inactive now, but this is what she wrote:

“... a result of my inborn love for categorizing and organizing information, for finding things out — my personal mania for the gathering and accumulation of data.  I used to catalog my collections (coins, stamps, rocks, books) for fun, but somehow, the thrill that that offered was limited because once everything was cataloged, then what was left to do?

“Generations, on the other hand, and the sideways spreading branches of brothers and sisters, those things are infinite.  There is always something new to seek out, some new morsel of fact to tuck away safely, one more person to catalog.  There is always someone else’s mother or sister or brother to find.  The impossibility of tracing oneself conclusively back to Adam and then forward again, through the radiating branches of cousins shooting outward to encompass the whole world – this impossibility insures an eternal occupation, a task that will never have an end.”

Thanks for that, Rebecca, whoever you are.