Have you seen that commercial where the 2 guys are in Norway and they go to the big museum or whatever to look up their family and discover their Swedish? Maybe it’s the other way around, but you get the idea. Well, tonight I feel like them.

I finally found the names, birth dates, and birth places of my great great grandparents on the Johansen line. I’ve been working on this one for ages. I was so excited I cried (just for a second). I emailed it off to some family and then started to read in more detail the info. Oluf was born in Bjælkholdt, Sverige. Try googling that. Turns out…Sverige is Sweden. I’m Swedish. I mean, I’m just as Danish as I was 5 minutes ago. Oluf moved to Rønne, Bornholm (Denmark) in 1889 (Anna moved there in 1880), where all of their children were born. Their son Hjalmar then moved to the US when he was 20, world goes round and here I am a Johansen. Danish…but now Swedish too.

I was doing more research the other night and found a reference to a book title ‘John Hawks: a Founder of Hadley’. I looked it up in Amazon – no beans. Meh, keep doing research. It kept being referenced though. It started to bother me that this book obviously had a TON of information in it, but I couldn’t find it. I found a forum that said that the Deerfield Museum had the book. I checked their website and it wasn’t listed, but I figured this was a once in a lifetime chance, so I better email.

I just received an email that they had a few copies left and after they’re gone the book is completely out of print. So I have just ordered ‘John Hawks: a Founder of Hadley’ to learn about my family and how they were involved with the start of America.

I have discovered the more rewarding part of genealogy thanks to a woman that works for the Historical Society in Galva, IL. She helped me learn the story of James Gaster, my three times great grandfather. She has found his obituary, told me that he was the Postmaster from 1883-1887, and has 2 photos of him to share with me (one from the Civil War). It is so rewarding to learn his story and to relate US History to my family directly.

It led me to think about my closer relatives, such as my Grandma. Sure, I know some of the stories about my Grandma. But most of them are from my own experiences and stories my dad tells. So I asked her if she liked the idea of writing her story. She asks if I mean stories like that she lived in Oklahoma until she was 4. Exactly! I never knew she lived in Oklahoma, nor that my great grandparents lived there (and they did since she was 4). So how do we get our living ancestors to tell us their story? Do I give her MS Word and tell her to start typing! Do I give her a notebook and tell her to write any stories in no particular order and hope that someday I have the time to organize it all? How do I give Grandma the tools to share her story in an easy way that makes it possible for her to actually do this? I don’t want to ask her to do this and then never see it.

I have done a lot of genealogy research in the past few years and have learned so much about my family. I have mostly been working on my dad’s side of the family because nobody has worked on any of it. It’s been really cool to discover that I’m related to Old King Cole and Horace Greeley, but what I really want to know is what the people were like. What did they do for a living? When did they move different places and why? What wars did they fight in? Finding out this information is a lot harder than just finding out how far back you can go with your family research.

Enter Ancestry.com. I have avoided this site because it is very expensive ($160/yr or $30/mth). They have a 3 day free trial though and I tried it out last night. WOW. All of a sudden I have a complete biography of James Gaster when I didn’t even have his parents names before. Now I know that his grandfather came over from Germany in the late 1700’s. That’s huge! I also found the history of the Hawks family and the different ways they spelled the last name (again huge!). And the best part about this is that I can download the images of the records and add them to Reunion (my genealogy software). Then when I have enough information gathered about the Hawks line, I can easily compile a book and give it to my family members.

This had me so excited last night that I could hardly sleep. I’ll do more free research tonight and tomorrow, but then I’ll have to shell out some major dough to continue my addiction.

I’m still going strong on this genealogy thing. I have found evidence that takes the Hawks family back to England in the early 1600s. There is also a Greeley family branch from the Hawks family. Yesterday I found evidence to take them back to England in the 1600s. I think I need to find myself some access to ship passenger logs. Anyone know where to get those?

Most importantly, I proved that yes I am related to Horace Greeley. We always knew that we were, but we never knew how. So I now know that Horace Greeley is my 4th cousin 7 times removed (I’ll wait for you to stop laughing). That is so ridiculously remote that it is hardly worth it.

As Grandma said though, now I just have to prove our relation to the Adams presidents. Do you know how many Maude Elijah Adams there are? And worse yet, she married John Smith. How useful is that? *sigh*