Happy Dance, woot woot!

Last night I was checking some facts in my genealogy program on my husband's family line. I hadn't worked on his line in some time. I had several alerts about dates that had problems. I (or someone who gave me the information) had a family member in the wrong family. The person in question was put into his grandparents family by mistake. No wonder his "mother" was 67 years old when he was born. Big red sign right there!

After all the children were linked with the correct parents, I noticed I hadn't put in any census information at all. I went over to Ancestry.com, logged in, and started looking through all the censuses starting from 1940.

Well, lo and behold, what do you know? It was like starting all over again; the thrill of the hunt. With many surname spelling variations, I was able to trace his mother's maternal line back through the 1900 U.S. population census in Pennsylvania. I found my husband's great-great-grandmother Helen, enumerated with her son John's family in the 1910 and 1920 censuses. Found a great-uncle George, in the 1900 census, enumerated with his brother John's family. Even hubby was impressed.

So far I've found my husband's mother's paternal line only through 1920 U.S. population census in Pennsylvania. Their surname also had many spelling variations. At one point there were over 3,000 results and all the filters I was using wasn't showing up. On the 1920 census his great-grandparents stated they immigrated here in 1901. I'm not giving up yet, I have many avenues to still search, and the hunt is exciting.

On The Road to Wisconsin

This morning my husband and I embarked on our 2012 Great American 1,800 mile Road Trip.  We left coastal southern California’s 73º weather and drove into 110 º “furnace” of Nevada.  Similar weather in the coming weeks only with humidity.

We’re heading to Dorchester, Clark County, Wisconsin to participate in the Williams/Bartunek Family Reunion that’s going to be held on Saturday, 28 July.  Our great-grandparents are the connection.  (My maternal grandmother was a Bartunek.)

I’ve been emailing and collaborating with several of the cousins’ for about 10 years.  It’s been great sharing family information and getting connected again with my mother’s side.  Some of the cousins live in the area; some are driving from Illinois, Michigan and parts unknown to me.

I also have cousins from my mother’s paternal side of the family in the area.  We’ll be visiting with one of her cousins the day following the reunion.  I talked to her a few weeks ago.  She wanted to know what I wanted to do/see when we meet.  I told her not to worry about taking me to “see the sights, I just wanted to visit.”  She asked if I wanted to go to any cemeteries while we’re there.  Oh wow!  I said, “Yes, of course!” 

A week after the reunion we’ll be driving across the state to visit with another cousin of mine.  We haven’t seen each other close to 50 years I think.  With all of this coming up, I’ve been busy updating my genealogy program to Roots Magic-5; scanning photos my mother had; scanning vital record documents; finally inputting the new facts with sources in the program.  While on the road I’ll still need to printout family group sheets and make a genealogy CD for each family.

I’m anxious and excited at the same time.