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Genealogy Comes To Me

Several times recently, an opportunity from genealogy world has landed in my lap. This happens because of doors I have opened. It works this way:

  • When Ancestry.com took down the genealogy message boards last year, I followed the advice of several genealogists to make final posts before the boards converted to a read-only format. I put updated queries and contact information on the boards for each of my surnames. Since then, several Carter researchers have contacted me. One provided an extended Carter DNA analysis with a hypothesis as to where my branch fits in to the Carter family. This provides a wonderful start to my Carter research this year.
  • Last month I began attending the Norwegian Cultural Skills group for genealogy offered by my local Sons of Norway lodge. There I met a woman whose Norwegian family settled in the same county in Montana where my Bentsen family homesteaded a hundred years ago. She owns the out-of-print, three-volume history of Sheridan County, Sheridan’s Daybreak. She has offered to do some look-ups for me! I hope she can find information on some of my collateral relatives. All of my grandfather’s siblings married into families (Bedwell, Fleming, Leader, Overby, Scollard) that also settled in Sheridan County.
  • On a sadder note, I learned this week that the Colorado Genealogical Society will lose its meeting site next year. The Board has decided to move to the Denver Public Library and gather there on Saturday mornings. After more than twenty years as a member of this organization, I have decided not to follow them in this move. I prefer an evening meeting, and my Saturdays are already too full. This decision to discontinue my membership will free up some time and money for other genealogical pursuits.

So the work continues to move ahead. Sometimes I just have to do something to nudge it along.

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