Beginnings….

Welcome to the first blog post on my first-ever website! Unfortunately, I’m still learning all the ins and outs of this. If anyone should happen to stumble across this site (I haven’t sent the link out to family and friends yet due to lack of content), my first page lists the almost 400 unique surnames in my family tree. It’s something to look at lol

For privacy reasons, I chose to leave out details connected to each surname. In order to encourage my family and relatives to share birth dates, maiden names, middle names, etc. with me I won’t post information on the site on anyone reasonably believed to be alive, unless prior permission is  obtained. The same goes for stories, photographs – anything that is shared with me. I’m so grateful for every piece of information I receive, it’s important that I make you all aware that you can trust me with what you share.

My current goals involve finding as many LIVING family members as I can. I think most genealogists start out by documenting what they know about their immediate family, then slowly working backwards. I figure the records of people who lived and died in the early 1800’s will still be there in a few months. For me, it’s more important to find the living – to get to know them, to be able to share family history with them, and to hopefully find that somewhere in the family, some 3rd or 4th cousin has photographs of some of the more elusive members of my direct family lines lol

With 1,447 people currently in my family tree (as of today), and after having only been doing this since September 2010, I’m very thankful for every relative that has helped me so far. I’m also EXTREMELY thankful that all of my great-grandparents left Poland and came to Chicago. I feel incredibly lucky to be living a hop, skip, and jump away from where my grandparents and parents were born, as well as my great aunts and uncles, along with allll the records they left behind. 🙂