A GENEALOGY/FAMILY REUNION KENTUCKY TRIP

I was Super Excited about a trip we took to work on our family trees. Our destination was Berea, Kentuckey and Somerset, Kentucky. Not only did we go on a really large Genealogical Adventure but we got to spend quality time with family we had not seen in awhile.

Plus we had the Perfect Traveling Companion! Our English Bully baby, Liley! We do believe she thought she had met a GIANT do with long ears across the fence 🙂

Before we hit the road, we made reservations at a hotel in Berea and a large home in Nancy, Kentucky. We were able to look at our family trees we had worked on and keep housed on ancestry.com before and after we visited cemeteries as well as WikiTree and Find a Grave.

Googling an ancestors name is fun because sometimes they pop up and you see a more defined life span. A search can reveal that a family member has written a family book with names, dates, photos and stories. There are family name and city/state groups started on Facebook.

The very best parts of this trip was spending time with a family member that was eager to share his wealth of knowledge on my husbands side of the family!

Do Your Homework! My family tree has a few unsolved secrets, murder and a few ancestral “dead ends!” But, I have to start at the beginning with myself, look past the broken connections and keep trying to write everything down.

• Begin With You-Write or type out your full name and any other last names you have had. This is very important! When you are studying the life of one of your ancestors, they may have several or just one or two last names during their life span. Women have a Maiden Name-Married Name And May Get Married More Than Once. An Ancestor may have taken the last name of a family that took them in if they did not live with their parents for some reason. I have a whole family in our Family Tree, the mom, dad, and two sons, that changed their last names more than a few times.
• Write out your Birth Date-Day, Month, & Year. Do Not be surprised if you think you have found your Ancestor but their Birth Year is not matching up with what is on their tombstone. People changed the year they were born to appear older maybe to get a job or maybe to get married, etc.
• Write out the year you were Married and in what County, City and State.
• Write out If you were in the Service and the years you served.
• Write out Any and ALL Information that might be helpful if someone wanted to find you. Where you were born-Where you went to school-If you vote-Where you work-Travel-This gives you a great path to follow in finding your Ancestors.

Do Not Be Shy! Ask Family Members For Help

• Call-Write-Visit Don’t hesitate and wait till that person can’t remember or is no longer with us. Ask them for any information they are willing to share. They might open up and want to share a book of stories! People want to talk and share and they love that you are interested.
• They might have a box full of family photos. You can always make copies if they want to keep the original photo. I have taken my phone and Apple ipad and taken a photo from a hanging picture. Facebook Groups share photos-Ancestry.com has photos people have shared and googling brings up old photos too. Check with the college in the town you are searching in their Historical Archives. Check out the libraries and the Historical Society.

Document everything you find~Enjoy the search~Have fun finding your roots!

From all of us here in Watertown Tennessee on New O’Hana Farm, TN