Digging for Graves

A week ago, I started delving into my genealogy projects some more. My newest discovery was that I was able to determine that Lord Calvert of Baltimore was my 10th- great grandfather... pretty cool stuff. At any rate, while digging up my past, I came across a website called findagrave.com. Apparently, there are people that go around to cemeteries all over the world and document graves. Findagrave has even listed its top posters -- some people submitting over 50,000 graves to this site!

There's also a neat feature on the site where if you really want a picture of a grave, and you are not able to travel there, you can request that a grave hunter go and photograph it for you. Cool!

I was able to find my grandmother on this site who passed away in 2005 and some of my ancestors as well. You can also do searches for famous people and leave "virtual flowers" at the graves.

More Family Photos...

After my grandparents passed away, my family started to divide up the items. My aunt got all of the family slides and negatives. She had no where to keep them, and asked me if I could store them for her. I have about 2500 slides from the 1950s to the 1980s and about a hundred black and white negatives from the 40s. I've started scanning the black and white negatives and have found quite a few lost family treasures. The below pictures are some of my favorites.

What are you when you're in the bathroom?

European! At least that's what I paid National Geographic $100 to tell me.

Apparently, my DNA results are back and my maternal lineage is from Europe, a part of hapologroup "W". This group makes up 10% of the world's population. I would post more, but I'm late for work. In the meantime, let this graphic representation of my maternal lineage satiate you.

One step closer...

Well, my DNA kit is in the final stages of being evaluated by National Geographic's third party lab. In a week or so, I should be able to find out where my mother's ancestors originally lived thousands of years ago. I will not be able to track my Dad's side unless I have a "Y" chromosome to test, so I may have to sucker my brothers or my Dad into giving up some cheek skin in the name of science.

I'll be sure to post my results when I get them!

Kissing Cousins.

I absolutely love having a big extended family. With my mom being the oldest of 8 children, I was lucky enough to grow up with 25 first cousins. Our summers and holidays were always spent with a million of us running around, playing and doing things that cousins do. I was born in the middle, so I have about the same amount of olders cousins as younger cousins. This was always an interesting position to be in because I always had cousins to look up to and cousins to be role models to.

One of my absolute favorite pictures taken was the one below. This was taken in the summer of 1983, when I was 4 years old. I'm the one in the green in the lower left.