Personal Lifelong Research Journey
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Introduction
Since mom passed away six months ago, my curiosity has been heightened to explore more about my family roots and heritage. My mother was a very private person, and she rarely talked about her life growing up. Even though she was my primary caretaker as a child and she lived with me for the past ten years, there was so much I didn’t know. I was very interested to know and continually probed her for personal information, yes, from my mother! However, she never wanted to engage in stories of her past, which only fueled my desire to learn more. I wanted to know where she came from, those life experiences she faced throughout her life that shaped who she was, how she dealt with challenges, how she thought about things and circumstances she often faced but had no control over, etc. So, I have recently begun researching her, her family tree, and many others in my family that she touched throughout her life. I am especially interested in the time before I was born when she was 35 years old. Ancestry.com is a wonderful technology tool with a wealth of data, information, and knowledge provided through generations of public records. People have taken the meticulous and painstaking time to digitize for current and future generations so that they can research, learn from, and grow as a person with the wealth of familial knowledge, heritages, and legacies from those who walked this life before us. I look forward to learning more as time and research permit, and I intend to contribute to the current data collection that I will digitize and add to this wonderful learning technology resource tool.Reflection
Two and a half years have passed since my mom passed away, and I began my search for my ancestors using the software application ancestry. Time has gone on in my life's journey, and reflecting on the fact that once mom died, my family tree ended with me. It is bittersweet to have this revelation in my life, but I am super blessed to know that I have extended family with my brother, three sisters, and their numerous offspring that they graciously share with me daily. I love witnessing my young nieces and nephews growing up so fast and learning so much more than I ever did at their ages, with the addition of virtually nonexistent technology in my youth during the 1970s. I am blessed, and the things that I have learned throughout my higher education, I enjoy sharing with our younger generation of lifelong learners in my family and beyond.