Walking With the Ancestors Through My Eyes

One of my most favorite things to do besides crafting is genealogy. Over the course of the last several years, I have been scouring through old photographs, scanning them, and documenting them in different methods to preserve the history of my ancestors on my Family Tree. This includes not only those that have lived and died before my time but those who are living today and sadly, dying. Young and old alike. I'm reminded of a quote I saw the other day. 

In day's past, I have shared many of my journeys of 'walking with my ancestors". It's a new year, a new day. The organization project of binders that I started early last year is still waiting to be finished. Will they ever be finished? The reason I say that is every day, daily, I learn new things about my great grandparents and their people. The list could go on and on and on. I am between crafting projects, so I plan on working on the binders again. I look at them daily...they aren't going anywhere. They are sitting on my bookcase right next to my desk. It's not easy to overlook them at all. 

Here's the temporary cover of the first binder I started. It's very raw in its current state. Once I fill the 3" binder with the information I want to be included in this binder, I will redo the cover. 

This binder will be different than the other binders I'm making. For purposes of this blog, I will call this binder the main one. Many people have set up Organizational Binders for their genealogy showing the pedigree of the unions, Birth, and Death records, Census records, and Military records. I suppose it's up to the individual what type of information they want to record in a hands-on binder.

I'm setting my binders up so that they coincide with the ones before them. In other words, each set of binders will have the exact same checklist. There will be overlap most likely as well. I mean,  how can there not be? This is where another set of Grandparents will come from. Their children! The kicker will be IF I have records to coincide with the checklist. Here is an example of what I'm talking about...

Have you ever gone into a retail store that is considered a 'chain' store? If you frequent this store day in and day out, you know where everything is in most instances. In the event you visit another 'chain' store with the same name, are they laid out the same as the one you are used to? Or are they flipped around causing you to feel lost? This is one of my biggest pet peeves with stores. This happened to me a week or so back. I went into a store that I shop frequently, only this time - I was in a different store with the same name not far from where we live. As I moseyed around the store, I needed to pick up a particular item. I went to where it was in the store, I frequent all the time, only to find that the said item wasn't in the same area. I was lost...I went up and down the next several aisles trying to find the item. Looking at the overhead signs above the aisles, I was becoming a bit flustered...my energy levels were low that day and I didn't feel like going through the entire store trying to find something so simple as Cornbread. I finally saw a store employee and asked, 'what aisle is the cornbread on"? She was kind enough to point in a direction that still baffles me today. Tell me why cornbread was located on the baby aisle? Doesn't make sense to me in any way, shape, or form...I learned a long time ago while working in Corporate America that 'consistency' is key. I still live by that philosophy today. To me, it is common sense for the most part...but then again, common sense seems to be out the window by the standards we live with today. Conformity is what this is called...how many of you are conforming to a new way of living? Aren't we all in one way or the other...?

That's why each of my binders will be set up in the same manner as the next. I don't want people flipping back and forth trying to find this document or that document. I want them to be able to look at the Index in the front of each binder and immediately go to that section. This is how I'm setting up my binders. Order and easily accessible. 

I have file folders readily available, sheet protectors, tabs, and labels waiting to be utilized. Pictures have been sorted and other records have been copied and separated. I just need to sit down and begin working on these binders again. 

My main binder will include my personal Six Generation Chart showing both the paternal lines and the maternal lines. In other words, my father’s, and mother's lines. I'm sure once I work on each binder, there will be a Six Generation Chart in each of them as well. Using the records I have for the Grandparent's pedigree. 

My paternal side won't be as full as my maternal side as I haven't been able to find much about my paternal grandparents and great grandparents. They came to America from Italy. I'm hoping one day, I can find someone who speaks the language that I can work with to fill in the missing pieces. That's for another day...

Also included in each of the binders will be copies of Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, and other important documents such as Marriage Licenses and Divorce records. There will be Census Records in each Grandparent binder, but not the main binder. 

Did you know that Census Records follow the 72-year rule? According to the "72-Year Rule," the National Archives releases census records to the general public 72 years after Census Day. As a result, the 1930 census records were released April 1, 2002, and the 1940 records were released April 2, 2012. The 1950 census records will be released in April 2022. I will be long gone before I ever show up in any Census Record. I guess it would be safe to say, maybe one of my children, but for sure my grandchildren will be able to find me on a Census record in the future. I will never see it in my lifetime. 

My binders will be set up for each of my Grandparents Union. For example, take Jerome Washington Chenault. He married a lady named, Nellie Cordelia Martin. They are my maternal Great Grandparents. Their binder is titled Chenault and Martin Genealogy. Currently, I have twelve Great Grandparent Union Binders started. This number changes every time I add a new set of grandparents to my family tree. 

Let me ask you a question, how many times have you overlooked something or someone in life? Did you ever backtrack and pick up the pieces? Genealogy is like that. We delve into the lives of our ancestors in hopes of learning their way of life, our family heritage, seeing photos of days gone by. I love seeing photos of yesterday. I have many pictures on my family tree, both of yesterday and of the current day. 

I am amazed when I look at other's family trees and see their family photos. Sometimes I oooo and sometimes I awww. In my family tree, I have several great grandparent branches where not even one photo exists. At least none that I have uncovered yet. 

Let's get back to the main binder. I have mentioned before in other blog posts I've written that I was raised by my grandparents until their death. In the main binder, are original greeting cards that my Granny sent to my mom in her absence. In many of them, are outlines of my handprints. I can't imagine the heartache my mother felt when she received these cards from time to time and seeing my little hands. I also have poems that my mother wrote. They are torn and tattered and written in pencil. Some of the words are beginning to fade. (I have scanned these in for safekeeping). Like many twists and turns in genealogy, these conversations were always left as 'unmentionables' even to my mom's last breath in 2020. However, I have the memories preserved for generations to come. (I haven't altered any of the cards or the poems. Today, they are almost sixty years old). I guess I'm considered vintage almost! LOL

My genealogy binders are a work in progress that hopefully will continue to grow. They are the footprints of my lineage (past, present, and future) and are the ancestors for generations to come. I am a descendant of my great-great-grandparents, as my children and grandchildren will be. The only difference is, I will be their ancestor and they will be my descendant. I'm honored to have been given the where with all and desire to leave such a legacy for my family.  

How many of you have family trees or know the family history? Do you find it interesting or not even interested in it? 

What kind of legacy are you leaving for your family and their families? 

Walking with my ancestors...past, present, and future. 

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