Whither Have I Come?

Over the last year I have been thinking about my roots a lot. Where have I come from? What were my ancestors like? Where did they come from? My family has never been close to extended relatives. In fact, I barely know any outside my direct family. When I was younger it never seemed like a big deal, but lately I have felt a desire to know more and to be able to pass that on to my children.

Next year, with the money from my tax return I am going to buy a digital camcorder. I want to begin interviewing members of my family about their life, their memories. I also want to record an annual interview with my siblings, my children, and my nieces and nephews. I think I will do it around Christmas time since that seems to be the easiest time to get everyone together and the perfect time of year for such a project. I want to pass those movies down to my kids and their kids and their kids and so on. I think modern technology gives us a wonderful opportunity here.

I am also going to begin researching my family genealogy. My father has done some work on his family and he gave me the binder of materials he has collected. He has managed to trace a part of his mother's family back to the late 17th century. It is very exciting and I'm looking forward to this. It is a long term project, of course, but one that should prove fascinating.