This web site, begun in
November of 1999, is a work in progress.
I'm currently attempting
to put my past three year's efforts in genealogical research online
to share with other researchers.
While most of my pages
pertain to my New England Ancestry, I recently
uploaded a new page, My
Ancestral Lines, which will allow me to expand the focus of this
site.
Why genealogical
research, you ask? Five years ago, I would never have believed that
I would be putting every spare minute of my time into poring over
microfilm of 18th century town records! I became somewhat curious
about my ancestry three years ago, and in response, my mother sent
me boxes of old papers, photos, books and bibles that had been
handed down to her from her mother. At first glance, the old papers
were just that -- and extremely difficult to read, to boot!
The pivotal piece of
paper was an apprenticeship contract, dated July
7, 1749, in which a mother (at that time unknown to me) placed her
8½-year-old son into an apprenticeship to learn the trade of
weaving. The name of this boy was on most of the other old papers I
had, but the dates clearly spanned the duration of his life. Being a
mother of boys, myself, I was immediately fascinated by the
circumstances that led to a young child being apprenticed -- in
colonial Rhode Island no less-- and I had to find out who he was and
how he was connected to me.
Well, I have learned
quite a bit more about that 8½-year-old boy. He was my
great-great-great-great-great grandfather, and in the process of
putting together the puzzle pieces of his life, I have also
discovered many new, fascinating pieces of the puzzle that, in a
way, make up who I am!