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Getting Start Up

Like everyone else, you have two sides to your family -your father’s side and your mother’s side.  In my case, I knew all about my mother’s people as far back as to the point where they entered this country.  I knew that my great-grandparents were fishermen in Palermo, Sicily and that they came here as adults seeking a better way of life.  My father’s side, however, was a mystery.  No one knew too much about them, in particular, my father’s father.  My dad’s father died young and his father had died after being shot during a holdup. He was a police officer and no one knew too much about him.  My grandfather had two full blooded siblings and, after his mother remarried, two half-brothers.  That was all we knew about him.  My paternal grandmother also had mysterious roots.  Her father left the family when she was young and her mother married another man.  She had three siblings and the other man ended up to be a good husband and father to my great grandmother.  I can remember my great-grandmother and the stories that she told.  She died when I was 12 and she said that her people came from the Mayflower, which I do not know to be true. My father is not even sure of where her people came from but heard somewhere that they were English mixed with Scotch blood.  Like you, I had many choices when I decided to get started.  As I knew so much about my mom’s side of the family, I decided to find out about my dad’s side of the family.  I knew my grandmother, grandfather and both my great-grandmothers from this side of the family, but no one seems to remember the name of my father’s paternal grandmother (her first name) although my dad is pretty sure that he knew her married name.  It was very murky and I as I like a challenge, this was the side of the family that I decided to focus on.  The side where no one knew where anyone came from, had trouble finding out names and had no idea how my great grandfather on this side ended up dying (I found out the information through my search).

As it turns out, this was the side of the family was one of the “Untouchables” hailed from.  It was an interesting journey to discover this for my father and to be able to tell him that he was related to someone who made somewhat of a mark in history in Chicago.  The funny thing is that we were all from the east and ended up in Chicago some 35 years ago.  As was my dad’s second cousin, who helped bring down Al Capone.  You have to know where to start when you are doing your ancestry search.  For some people, they may choose to find the easiest way to look up their roots.  They may have extended family with whom they keep in touch and find out about relatives through stories and pictures.  Others may want to delve into the unknown and discover the truth about missing relatives or those who had lives that were cut short or of whom people knew very little about.  I chose this path because we heard that my great-grandfather had left the family (one of the many rumours about my dad’s paternal family) so I decided to go and find out for myself.  The fact that he was shot on duty as a police officer – that he didn’t leave the family and his children because he ran off, gives my dad comfort.

So pick a side that you want to investigate first.  I say first because once you start looking up your family tree and finding relatives that you never knew existed, you might find that you are addicted to doing this and decide to look up all branches of your family tree.  Once you have decided on a side that you want to investigate, start gathering information about them.  Get their last name and find out as much as you can about them.  Bear in mind that stories about people get convoluted over the years as they are told and told again.  Try to get as many facts as possible about the person.  My paternal grandfather, who died when he was 50, for example, was in WWII and served in the Pacific.  I knew this for a fact from my father and my grandfather.  We had some photos of him as a young man.  But nothing past his military status and his name were evident. We had nothing else to go on when it came to this man who I remember bouncing me on his knee and taking me to the five and dime to get candy and toys.  In the last chapter, I mentioned reasons why you may want to find missing relatives or get the story on those who have passed.  There is another reason, as well.  I felt that I owed something to my grandfather for the kindness that he showed towards me when I was a child.  He died younger than any of my other grandparents, who all lived to old age.  He died even younger than two of my great grandmothers.  I never got a chance to know him and by discovering his family history, I felt that I was not only doing something for myself but something for him as well.  After all, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.

After you decide on where you want to start and have as much information as possible such as the following:

  • Name
  • Approximate birth date
  • Approximate death date
  • Where they lived
  • Where they died
  • Marriages

You are ready to begin.  You need to have something to go on and the best place to start is to look at social security records.  They keep records on everything.


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