Research my family tree

I spent a few hours this morning at the library working on this little project o’mine. Everyone in my family has always told me that as far back as anyone can remember or has ever heard, we’re Alabamians. Ummm…nope…not so much. My grandfather’s great-grandfather and his parents (which isn’t that far back I’m beginning to realize) were born in South Carolina. I know I’m just getting started, but it really pumped me up to find something so easily that my grandfather has no clue about.

I learned another little lesson today, too: My family has a well-established habit of naming at least one male in each little family William, and they were also pretty freakin’ fond of handing out two middle names for every male child. The census and other government records, on the other hand, aren’t quite so keen on this, and trying to determine which of the two middle names is used is probably going to turn into a little bitch. Oh, and there’s also the fact that the person might use one middle name on one thing and then decide to put the other one on something else. Having to compare lists of children’s names on every little thing I come across is fairly time consuming, but I just have to get this right.

South Carolina…well, well, well…

First off, let me say that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing or how exactly to go about this task. I just WANT to do it – for me, my mom and brothers but mostly for my Papaw. This is something he’s always expressed an interest in, and he told me a few days ago that he regrets not really digging into it when he was still able to be out and about.

So I’m gonna do it for him.

Luckily for me, the library in Birmingham has an excellent Southern History department that offers classes in how to trace your genealogy and has people on staff who are willing to help. Next week, I’m going to the first class which is going to cover the best way to get started and how to go about finding birth records, death records, obituaries and everything else that’s out there to be found.

Today I spent my time with Papaw going through the first (of quite a few) suitcases full of pictures and taking notes on who’s who and approximate birth and death years.

You know, my main goal is to simply find out something – one name or place or time – that my grandfather doesn’t know. I just want to give him that, and it shouldn’t be that difficult, because he only remembers back to his great-grandfather – the rest of his relatives died either before he was born or was still very young.

I know this is going to take a LONG time, but if I stick with it and devote just an hour or two a week to it, I know I’ll be able to find some little family gem that’ll make him happy.

I can do this. I’m a geek. I love being in the library. I was a reporter. I know the effin’ courthouse. I actually enjoy researching things. I’m going to try to do as much as I possibly can on my own before using anything like ancestry.com. I think the fact that I’m willing to do the work makes him just as happy as the thought of finally knowing where his family came from.

My first goal is to at least get a good handle on things by Christmas, so I can give him what I’ve found for a present.