Friday, August 20, 2010

Time Travel

Since researching and planning for the Italy trip, I've become interested in starting research on my family tree. I started this many years ago but got sidetracked and discouraged with the challenge of finding information. Today, the internet makes some of the searching much easier.

What really made me think about doing it more seriously was the possibility of getting Italian citizenship. With the proper documents and the proof of my family blood line, I would be able to apply for citizenship in Italy, giving me dual citizenship between my ancestors' home country and mine.

Seeing the handwriting of my great-grandparents (like on this draft registration card), their names on census documents (with addresses and family member names) and seeing their names on the passenger lists of ships that came in through Ellis Island is really exciting. So far, I've been able to go back six generations on one side and five generations on the other.

I can't wait to find out more!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
One More Reason I Love The Highway Hags
2 YEARS AGO:
Boathouse On The Gulf
3 YEARS AGO:
Canada Is Bubblicious
4 YEARS AGO:
You Know You’re In A Hotel That Doesn’t Have A Star Rating…
5 YEARS AGO:
It’s A Dry Heat

1 comment:

Evil Pixie said...

Where have you looked? Ancestry.com has an amazing amount of stuff online, but of course it comes with steep fees. Also try government archive centers, including state archive centers. Through state archive centers, I found original land purchase documents, marriage licenses, birth records, death records, legal records, adoption records, and a laundry list of other documents. Most are copies of the originals, but a cousin of mine went to an old court house in another state that was making all their records digital and destroying the originals. She managed to get my great, great grandparent's original marriage license (circa 1880).

The one thing it does require, though, is digging in a lot of dusty, dark places. This pixie, though, is in her element in those places. :)