My Passion for Genealogy

     

Hi Everyone! I’ve decided to start blogging my Genealogy adventures. I’ve been at this for almost 13 years, and I learn something new everyday. Not too many people blog about cemeteries, unless it’s to talk about a visit to a cemetery for a loved one or friend, or simply out of curiosity. I’m not your average, degree in Anthropology or Social Sciences type of Genealogist. I’m a family genealogist, who started out of curiosity about my son’s father’s family, turned I want to help anyone and everyone learn more about who they really are. The saying goes, “You can’t know who you are, unless you know where you came from.”  It’s very true! If you think about it, take me for example, I knew nothing about my father and his family. My dad was an only child, who’s mother had Dementia, as well as her sister who also sadly got dementia a few years after she did. I was very young when my dad died, so I never got to learn much about his side of the family, if at all. It wasn’t until I started working on my mother’s side of the tree, that I realized, I really knew nothing about my dad’s family. So my curiosity about my ex’s family, turned into an obsession (we’ll call it a passion lol), which after my mother’s parents both passed, turned into the hunt to know more. 

     I wanted to know everything. Dead ends would lead me in a chase to find lists of cemeteries (which by the way, sadly there is no actual complete list online-more about that in another post), or cemetery plot maps. I even made friends with people that work at the cemeteries to make it easier to be able to track down information. With every wall I hit, I’d find a way to get around it and succeed, usually learning more than I originally intended to. I’d spend hours at different cemeteries, with my 4 year old in tow, plot mapping, note taking, cleaning, and cataloguing information on directions and people they’re buried with (sometimes learning that those too were family members). I got so good at navigating some of the cemeteries that frequented, that I could get my visit time usually down to an hour and be able to hit 3-4 places a day, finding more and more info out as I went along, and still having time to get back to the Windward side of the island to pick up my 5 year old from school at 2pm. 

     I’d get these crazy ideas to plot map the older cemeteries, which would start with me needing grave information so I’d call around to try to find out who is in charge of care for a certain cemetery. After that, on top of trying to work on my usual family trees (and yes there’s more than one), I’d 

spend every moment I could looking up resources to help me navigate through this journey or I'd watch You Tube videos on cemetery plot mapping or headstone care. Not your typical idea of fun to some, but to me, it's my sanity. So, whether you're just curoius about certain family members, have no idea where to start on your family tree journey, or your an avid geneaologist and cemeterey lover like myself, welcome to my blog! Now let's get to work!