Why I Started Digging | Genealogy Forums | Forum

My grandmother had a stack of obituaries in her bible and I had no idea who a lot of those people were. When I asked, she labeled most of them as cousin, aunt or uncle so and so. Quite a few of them lived within 15 – 30 minutes of me and had died within my lifetime. I wanted to know why I didn't know about or had never met any of them.

I was also motivated by the fact that there were very few people with my surname in the state of Michigan. I wanted to know who the Charity's were and where they came from.

Print

History has always fascinated me, but I have a secretive family.

Since I'm in Utah I decided to take advantage of the Mormon's resources. Within a few hours I was able to trace my Great-Great Grandmother and Great-Great Grandfather on my mother's side. They were born in VA in 1863 and 1864 respectively. I now have to find slave records to see if I can trace back farther.

It's easier to find the males since my great-grandfathers had to sign draft registration cards for WWI. These cards listed the counties and states they were born in.

Print