This weekend I took every bit of information that has already been collected on all sides of my family and compiled it into one pedigree. There's a lot of it, and it took a long time, but now that it's done it's much easier to sort through! My parents have asked me to concentrate on my maternal grandmother's family, so that's what I'm doing now. At first I was all excited because according to what my distant cousin had put together there was a husband and wife in this family line (my 4th grandparents?) who died on the same day in 1748 - both young. That could have led to a really fascinating story - a fire or a murder or something. Alas, when I found other people's records on Rootsweb it turned out that they both died "sometime after" that day in 1748. So no juicy story there. But that's okay, that leaves me with the mystery of when they did actually die. I'm also stuck on immigration records. The man I'm looking for came over from Scotland in the last half of the 18th century and settled in PA. But did he sail directly to PA? And can I narrow down the date of his sailing? And why, oh why, does he have to have one of the most generic names in the world - William Wilson?
A few things I need to do:

• get my printer working!
• find and read one really good book about doing online genealogy research (since that's all I can do right now)
• get back to work.

And so to work....

I know that there are a lot of steps to take before I can actually be a Professional Genealogist. I just don't know in what order I should take those steps. I need to

• Find a mentor
• Join the local Genealogical Society
  
• Take certification classes
• Get field experience
• Advertise and get clients
• Take certification exams & apply for certification
• Take accreditation exams & apply for accreditation
• Set up a sole proprietorship or LLC

Here's the thing, though - which comes first? The coursework or the field experience? The getting clients or the setting up a sole proprietorship? The field experience or the getting clients? And then there are obstacles at each step. I know the names of several PGs in my hometown (who are apparently no longer taking new clients), but I know nothing about their personalities or whether they would be good mentors, let alone willing to take on a mentee. As for the certification classes, they cost money, which I don't have a lot of extra right now. And finally, am I allowed to advertise myself as an independent researcher without registering as a sole proprietorship? Or do I have to register first? All of these obstacles can be overcome with a little bit of investigating, but until I get the time to investigate they are all floating around in my head worrying me. Thank goodness the weekend is coming up. And my boss is back in town today (briefly) so I can talk with her about coming in earlier and leaving earlier. It'll all come together with a little patience.

I should have known this. After all, my father gave me the "family history" (a 200-odd page typed and Kinko's-bound spiral affair) years ago. But I only just really sat down and looked at it last night. Turns out it's not a family history at all. It's only about my grandfather. Not that there's anything wrong with that - he had a fascinating life! But it is rather disappointing to sit down to what you think is going to be your whole family history going back several generations only to find out you're reading a biography of one family member. Apparently my uncle has lots more of these spiral-bound missives, presumably about the rest of the ancestors. But I have yet to see them.

The exciting thing is that there are still some mysteries to fill in, so I have something to work with to get experience! And according to my mother, whoever did their side of the family did a terrible job, so it needs lots of work. So that's sort of good news for me too!

And now for Wednesday's family story...

I have two older brothers who are, in fact, much older than me. Let's call them J. and G. I grew up hearing them have the same argument over and over about one particular incident from their childhoods. My dad was in the military, so the family lived on base. I believe that at the time of "the incident" they were at Fort Campbell, KY.* In their yard was a large metal transformer (electricity, not action figure). According to J. (the younger), he and G. were playing "bullfighter" and G. deliberately put the makeshift cape in front of this transformer, causing J. to slam his head painfully into the side of the thing. To this day G. swears that J. simply tripped over his own feet (imagine J.'s reaction to such an accusation!) and that he never would have played such a horrendous trick on his beloved younger brother. I think they're both lying. G. absolutely would have played such a trick. After all, he was only about 8 years old at the time, and a rowdy young boy at that. Still, I believe his side of this one. Let the record show - balance and grace do not run in my family.

*All family stories in this blog are products of my memory of other family members' memories. There is bound to be some misinformation. But the stories themselves are genuine.

Yesterday I found this wonderful site called Genealogy Blog Finder! I've added a couple of the blogs I found there to my Google Reader. Check it out!

I don't have much else to say today. My family history is buried in the bottom of my guest room closet and my boyfriend promised to dig it out for me today (it's under lots of heavy stuff). So tomorrow I'll have a nice story to share.

Yesterday I found this wonderful site called Genealogy Blog Finder! I've added a couple of the blogs I found there to my Google Reader. Check it out!

I don't have much else to say today. My family history is buried in the bottom of my guest room closet and my boyfriend promised to dig it out for me today (it's under lots of heavy stuff). So tomorrow I'll have a nice story to share.