A Google search the other day turned up some new information on one of my surnames. I ended up on a Rootsweb page where I’ve been before, but this time the owner of said page had some updates. I found an obituary for one of the descendants of my great grandmother’s brother. There was even a photo of my great great uncle’s gravestone. Since up until then I hadn’t even been able to find out what cemetery he was buried in, this made me very happy.

But the best (I hope) finds were the names and locations of two living descendants in the obituary. Two third cousins that I never knew existed. Two third cousins that may or may not be able to shed light on history, but at the very least, it’s nice to know they’re out there. I think the biggest thing that’s troubled me about not knowing anything about my mom’s side of the family is that it truly felt like we were alone in the world. I know third cousin’s on my dad’s side. I actually went to junior high school with one of them. We’re not close by any means, but at least I know she’s there. Furthermore, my dad can tell you who they are. My mom and my uncles didn’t even know that Briggs was their grandmother’s maiden name! I find that sad. You may not know the people who made it possible for you to be here, but you should at least know their names, I think.

Anyway, I searched on a white pages site for the one closest to me geographically and hopefully I found the right individual, because I sent off a letter yesterday afternoon. I’m hoping that some type of contact will be made, just so I’m dealing with a little less limbo. I thought about calling, but knowing how much I hate unsolicited phone calls, I didn’t want to put anyone else through that. So, I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll get a response.

That was a huge step. For me, at any rate. I’m well aware that my passion for this isn’t necessarily shared by others in my family. Thank goodness my mom and uncles are interested, because I always have someone to call when I find another clue. And now, I wait. And continue to search. Because these particular descendants are only a couple pieces of the very large jigsaw puzzle scattered out before me.

I just joined the Ohio Genealogy Society. I’m not sure what took me so long, other than I was a little overwhelmed with all of the various societies and not knowing which to join. So, I started with the big one in Ohio.

There are some individual county societies I’d like to join as well, particularly the one in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. There’s a chance I might be heading there within the next two weeks, so it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to do that ahead of time.

Last month, my boyfriend and I traveled down to central Ohio to look at covered bridges. While we were there, I also managed to work in a stop at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, where my great great grandparents, Lovina (SEIFERT) and Samuel BRANUM are buried, as well as the man I believe to be Samuel’s father, Allen BRANUM. I took photos of several of the grave markers there. I will post them online at some point. Which brings to mind that I should probably add the Fairfield County Genealogical Society to my list of those to join.

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I ventured into the main branch of our library so I could photocopy one page of a book titled Cemeteries of Berne Township, published by the Ohio Genealogical Society. I was looking for a particular name that might be my great great great grandfather. I found the name, Allen Branum, but as usual, every answer leads to more questions. But that’s not the point.

The point is that it was my first trip to the library. And in addition to the book I was looking for, there were several others on the shelf for Fairfield county that I desperately wanted to look through, not to mention the collection for Marion county as well. Were it not for prior plans that my boyfriend and I had, I would have stuck around for a while.

This weekend, he’s working. Guess where I’ll be all day tomorrow?

I don’t know what I was waiting for. I work in a library, after all. And yet, seeing all that information waiting for me was what a friend describes as a Ding! Click! moment. A lightbulb going off, if you will.

At the same time, it was intimidating. Where to begin? I can be easily overwhelmed. Then again, I’m so new to this, I guess it doesn’t hurt to pretty much start anywhere.

I’ve been around the Internet enough to know that if you look hard enough, you’ll find a negative side to everything - that group of individuals who look down on everyone else condescendingly because they don’t do things “correctly.”

When I was trying to evaluate whether or not I should trust ordering a copy of a will from someone, I did a Google search and found information both in favor of and against the individual. The majority was positive, so I bit the bullet and did it. And it was totally worth it. The service was a little slower than the mandatory 30 days, but as many had said, the individual in question was exactly that: an individual. I’m willing to cut slack to anyone as long as they maintain communication and this guy did.

But I digress. In the process of looking him up, I found a board that spent a lot of time trashing the online genealogy services. And truthfully, I started to get a bit of a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that maybe I’d succumbed to something I was going to regret: Ancestry.com. I started reading about questionable business practices and numerous problems terminating paid subscriptions. And ultimately, the condescending comments about people using Ancestry not being serious about accurate research.

Recently, I read a post on the very first genealogy blog I discovered talking about the new profile options available on Ancestry. The blogger noted that although there were many negative comments, she was enjoying the new features. I checked out those comments and found that I agreed with many of them.

Ancestry is great for whetting the appetite of someone interested in genealogy. You punch in the names and dates of a few ancestors you know and Presto! You’re greeted with a waving leaf, indicating that there might be historical records (or more!) that match your ancestor. Instant gratification!

On the flip side of that, however, is the group of individuals who really don’t want to do any work. They’re perfectly ok accepting what others have posted as fact. And let’s face it: there is a lot of incorrect information floating around out there. People have trees on Ancestry that don’t even make sense! When a man is married to his first wife while having a child with his second wife, or when a man is only 10 years old at the time of the birth of his first child? Someone is clearly not paying attention.

I will admit that I temporarily fell into a similar trap with the BRIGGS line. And then one day, I looked at the census records and figured out that if the person I thought was my great great grandfather was truly related to the parents and sisters I’d “found,” I had to account for him living in two places at once: one with his parents and one with his wife and children.Seeing as I’d already documented the children, I went with the latter and completely discarded the former. There might be a relationship, but it’s not the one I initially thought.

Ancestry is a great place for a beginner to start and to supplement what they already know. But it is definitely not the end all solution. Heck, I couldn’t find my great grandparents on the 1900 federal census through Ancestry. I found them in Family Search, though. And even with the enumeration district number and the page number of the record, I still couldn’t get Ancestry to bring up the record that I wanted. So, there are definite issues that need to be worked out.

Therefore, I have to agree with those who commented on how Ancestry should worry less about improving user profiles, and more on making the site search effectively and QUICKLY.

So, to recap: Ancestry.com is good for the novice. Just don’t put blind faith into what you read. Much like what you hear in the news, it’s often bad information.

My immediate top four names and locations are:

• FOSTER in Marion, Ohio
• BRIGGS in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
• BRANUM in Fairfield County, Ohio
• KITTLE in Weston, West Virginia

These four names represent all four great grandparents on my mother’s side of the family. And in just the short time I’ve been looking for information, I’ve discovered how easy it is to not only be overwhelmed with possible leads, but also how easy it is to go traipsing down the wrong path.

Fortunately, with the exception of those elusive BRIGGS members, the wrong path hasn’t presented itself too many times yet.

He was born in 1910 and his birth certificate, when it was filed, said “Unnamed.” I’m not certain how long it was until he was named Howard, but his middle name didn’t come until after he almost died from scarlet fever. He chose it himself, after the doctor who saved his life.

Howard had three older siblings. He never knew his sister Hattie Corrine. Scarlet fever took her life in 1901 when she was just 10 years old. Carl Blocksom was Howard’s older brother and later in life, he let it be known that he didn’t think much of Carl. Not much is known about him in our family.

Grace Lulu, on the other hand, lived to be 101 and EVERYONE has a story to tell about her. I never met her, but I wish I had.