Thanksgiving Genealogy Fun

This was actually from last Saturday, but it's still Thanksgiving weekend, so it counts, right?

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun at Genea-Musings:

1) Make a list of Genealogy-oriented people or things that you are thankful for. Any number -- 1, 10, 100, whatever.

2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook comment or Note.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!


1: I am thankful that so many of my family were already interested in genealogy and trying to trace my ancestors before I got my hands on the family tree.

1.1: I am thankful that my sister has been working so hard on getting our family pictures online. I've learned so much from the pictures that we have been scanning. So many who were barely even recognizable names are now faces that I recognize. It makes genealogy that much more fun.

1.1.1: I am thankful that Grumpy was such a shutter-bug that we have millions and millions of photos. Every one of them might not have been a work of art, but because of them, I know more of my family than I would have otherwise.

1.1.2: I am grateful to actually know what my great-grandmother Oline's handwriting looked like, and that she called my grandmother "Kylle," meaning little chick. It means so much to me to have little things like that. Makes the search more special.

1.2: I am thankful that my father's mother's side is so well-documented that I can actually piece it together and see how my grandmother and her sister put it together.

1.2.1: I am also thankful that my great-aunt above actually used to host get togethers every summer for our extended Danish and Danish-descended family, because it means I got to meet many of them over the years that I otherwise might not have even heard of.

1.3: I am thankful that my family is so supportive and helpful in my search to find out more. And that I'm always able to talk to them and ask them questions. There's so much I've learned from all of them.

2: I am thankful that I knew personally all my grandparents, even if I never told them enough just how much I appreciated them.

2.1: I am also thankful for getting a chance to talk with Nana about her family, and in particular her mother, because I learned so very much about our family when I did.

2.2: I am also thankful that I knew three of my great grandparents, even if they died when I was very young. It made getting to know them a bit more personal.

3: I am thankful for the great-grandfather who, when the Nazis were rising to power, and his businesses were failing, decided it would be best to leave Germany and got his family out before the mid-thirties.

4: I am thankful for those in my family who served in the armed forces to keep us safe. And I am so very thankful that so many made it home safe and whole.

5: I am thankful for computers that make this search so much easier in so many ways: for the programs that keep the information together for me, for the sites that give clues that I would otherwise have to travel halfway around the world to find, for the friends whom I have met who have helped me learn so much about places I have never been and dealing with a language I do not know.

5.1: I am thankful that sites like familysearch.org have so much information out there that makes it easier to narrow down the places I want or need to search.

5.2: And I am thankful that a site like JewishGen even exists, because without it, I would likely have no idea where to start looking for Grumpy's family.