We were at my Mom's the other day at a small family gathering and we were discussing the family research I've done and my sister wanted to know if I'd written down anything that I'd been discussing and the answer was no, not really.
"What will happen if you die" she asked me.
I shrugged.
At the time it didn't occur to me that it should matter all that much, as I thought I really was the only one to pursue this full time job of family archivist/genealogist, but after considering this for a while, I realized that she's right, though probably not for the reason she thinks.
My goal in my family research hasn't really been to document the family, (well for now anyways). My goal has been to fill some sort of need/desire that I have in my being to find out where I am from. I truly believe that to know where you're going, you have to know where you're from. The driving desire has been to find out where my Father's ancestors are from.
I had started this journey, for a journey it is, around 2001. I found my father's grandparent's graves and was able to bring him there so he could see them for himself. Around 2004 or so, I put genealogy aside as I had started pursuing photography as more than a hobby as well as having a teenager in middle school who played a mean game of soccer. In 2006 we lost our Father suddenly and for a couple of years I was kind of lost.
My father's ancestors came from Ireland and Germany and I felt a very close connection to my Irish heritage. After the loss of my father, I spent a lot of time listening to Irish music and thinking a lot of traveling to Ireland. In 2011 I watched an episode of Who do you think you are on NBC and everything sort of clicked. I had all of this genealogical research done, (thanks in great part to my maternal grandmother), but still had a great hole in the family on my father's side, so I started up with my research again.
I've made quite a bit of progress in the last few months, but of course am no where near completion, which brings me back to my sister and her question. My answer is this blog. While I will document my genealogy in my online tree and the tree on my hard drive, this blog will be for telling the journey of tracing my family and sharing it with my family and whoever happens by to peruse the blog. In no way do I intend on this being just about my paternal line, this will be about any research that I do for both my paternal and maternal lines. Included in the research, but not limited to the following surnames: Flynn, Barragy, McCovick, McDonough, Leibel, Rardin, Ramsey, Haremsa, Bowers, Fallows and Dodd. The list is by no means complete, but it's what I have recalled off of the top of my head.
I cannot promise to blog regularly, as I still have a daughter in high school who plays a mean game of soccer and I still have a full time job as well as a fledgling photography business, but I promise to do my best!
The enclosed photo is of my great aunt Olga Ramsey, she is my father's mother's sister. She was born around January 1897. Olga had an illness when she was around three and was mentally disabled. There are two things I can recall clearly about Olga. The first, is that she had false teeth, and she clicked them and it drove my Dad nuts! The second, is that she loved to watch the Perry Mason television show. She called him Harry Mason. I remember my aunt Olga with very fond memories! Olga passed away in 1975 in Forest Lake Minnesota. She is buried in West St Paul, Minnesota with her father Fred Ramsey.
May you have many blessings
And wherever your path may wind
May every day that's coming
Be the bright and happy kind
-Tom
