A Week Well Spent?

I'm halfway through my "stay-cation" and figured it's time to evaluate. My original intention (ha, ha) was to tackle house projects: cleaning cupboards, sorting through paperwork - you know the kind of stuff. But has that happened? Oh, no. I've nearly finished a baby afghan, read some books, took naps. The house looks pretty much the same. I have come to the bottom of my seemingly endless book stash, which means a fresh start when I'm back to work. I am feeling better, so that says a lot.

But my major project of this week has been genealogy. The computer keeps beckoning, and I've found myself sneaking away while everyone else watches tv to do "just a little more." I found some organizing tips online, and slowly, but surely, things are taking shape. Ancestry.com is great, but it is so tempting to just follow the "leaves" without digging any deeper. My challenge has been finding ways to do the digging with any level of success.

I found that I wasn't getting any sense of what the lives of these people were like - no sense of getting to know them at all. Not being sure how to begin, I pulled out Shirley Miller's book. It's unbelievable how much she was able to accomplish. She told me once that she stopped using the Internet - too much junk came into her inbox to make it worthwhile - so it was all done with slogging.  I decided to take her book and make sure all of the info was included in the Ancestry files - her work might be helpful to others out there, and it's nice knowing it is available to people who might be able to use it. It's been enlightening for me, and I'm starting to get a sense of the family story - more so than by just following the "leaves." The book is nearly empty now, and I feel like I have a better start. I'm also getting the bug to go see some of these places. Who knows - there may be a field trip in the offing!