Archive.com

I joined the fairly new genealogy resource, archive.com, a few months ago in a fit of genealogical stupor. I was hot on the trail of an ancestor and this new website showed a possible resource that would break a brick wall. So I joined for the 7-day trial period. Unfortunately, the resource was not for my ancestor. I forgot about archive.com and moved on to other resources. I also forgot about my 7-day trial and forgot to cancel it. Now I had a subscription so I decided to make the best of it. I started searching for all my main family lines: no records. I then searched the more obscure lines: no records. I have quite a few documented individuals in my family tree and I was very surprised that not a single record showed up. But I was also pretty disappointed with the search engine for the site. It is very discombobulated and difficult to navigate. When you conduct a search the results come up grouped by category such as death records, marriage records, etc. So rather than see all pertinent records at a glance you have to click each sub-group separately.
I think this resource my be more pertinent for those individuals researching recently deceased individuals...but I'm not sure as it is too convuluted to even mess with. I look forward to the end of my subscription. http://www.archive.com

The Meat on the Bones

I am passionate about genealogy. I think this comes from the need to have something that belongs to me but also many others at the same time. I enjoy that the people in my family tree are "my people." Yet, I am also fascinated by the fact that "my people" belong to many other people with traditions, memories and stories very different from my own. To me, the most interesting part of genealogy is the stories and events that go with each ancestor. Genealogists often focus on the facts: birth/death dates, marriage dates, number of children. But I don't often hear about The Meat on the Bones. I have worked on my particular family tree for years, but have just recently discovered how much more interesting it is to know what the lives of my ancestors were like, rather than just knowing that they "were." Walking in their footsteps, literally, helps me to feel closer to these individuals than any headstone ever could. I have found many interesting and helpful resources through my family heritage travels and look forward to sharing these with my fellow genealogists. If I help only one person add some meat to their ancestors bones I feel I will have fulfilled a need to help others find their people.