I've hit a couple of roadblocks. My mom's bio dad, I can only go back to his great grandfather, and the trail stops in Ireland. And Ralph's paternal side, I'm having a hard time with, also. I'm not quite at the point of asking for help online, yet.
I've found relatives on Mom's bio dad's side that I was vaguely aware of the existence of some of them. I've made email friends with one in particular, who has hit the same roadblock with Thomas Hackett that I have, and she's been working on her tree for years.
I don't know how people didn't lose their sanity working on genealogy before Ancestry existed. I love following the leaf clues. I've been in contact with distant cousins from Canada, SC, and Ireland! They've helped me out with pix of other generations, and some pix of documents.
A whole bunch of family came from Renfrewshire, Scotland! How cool is that! And we have a branch in central/western PA who were coal miners!
Some of it is heartbreaking. Babies died in large numbers, often of things that are now not as much of an issue. Croup, pertussis, cardiac defects. Adults died in mining accidents, and of TB, then called consumption.
John is fascinated, and always asks what new things I've found. Mike's attitude is "We don't need more damn relatives!" Manda is pretty fascinated, Steph is mildly interested, and Heather is too busy to even look at the tree.
It's a good obsession for me, for now. It keeps me from obsessing about Joe all the time, and I feel like I'm honoring him by putting him in the tree with all the in-laws and outlaws, as my dad would say.
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