Welcome and Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I have been researching my family history for eleven years.  I consider myself lucky because most of my lines landed and lived in the same geographical area that I live in now- northeastern New Jersey.  I am usually able to visit the gravesites of my ancestors and distant cousins, save for those who retired to California and Florida and are buried there.

I became interested in researching my family history during a Girl Scout trip to Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, Union County, New Jersey.  I don't remember which badge had such a requirement.  I do remember seeing names on gravestones and wondering how I could ever find out if any of them were related to me.  Then a caretaker showed us the grave of an unknown woman buried there after she was murdered- and nobody ever claimed her.  I wondered if it was possible that today we could figure out who she was.

When I went to college, I was able to research on computers and manually view death notices and other articles on microfilm.  The research was painfully slow, but that's how things were done- and this was only a decade ago.  My research took off when I attended law school in Newark, housed at 33 Washington Street close to the Newark Public Library.  While the other students were reading textbooks and debating cases, I was next door on the third floor of the library in the New Jersey room, recording entries from the city directories and trying my luck with the soundex cards for the 1920 census.  With the boom of resources now available on the internet, my research yields results daily from the convenience of my home.

Thank you for reading.