Why Of My Flesh and Blood for my Genealogy Blog?

Johnny Cash's "Flesh and Blood" song from his album I Walk the Line was an influence of part of the title and the Of My is because this is MY family's history and  no one's else.

The words are: 

"Flesh And Blood"

Beside a Singin' Mountain Stream
Where the Willow grew

Where the Silver Leaf of Maple
Sparkled in the Mornin' Dew
I braided Twigs of Willows
Made a String of Buckeye Beads;
But Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.

I leaned against a Bark of Birch
And I breathed the Honey Dew
I saw a North-bound Flock of Geese
Against a Sky of Baby Blue
Beside the Lily Pads
I carved a Whistle from a Reed;
Mother Nature's quite a Lady
But you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.

A Cardinal sang just for me
And I thanked him for the Song
Then the Sun went slowly down the West
And I had to move along
These were some of the things

On which my Mind and Spirit feed;
But Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.

[SPOKEN]

So when this Day was ended
I was still not satisfied
For I knew ev'rything I touched
Would wither and would die
And Love is all that will remain
And grow from all these Seed;

[SUNG]

Mother Nature's quite a Lady
But you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need. 

From Azlyrics

Seriously, when I started writing so much about my family's genealogy, it was overwhelming on the one site blog I was using and that blog's purpose was not to only exist for that purpose, so I decided to start this blog and its only purpose was to discuss my family's genealogy and some interesting and yet frustrating subjects I have come or will come across and this gives me a place to vent. 

Besides, I'm still looking for ongoing family, so I figured if someone who is family stumbles across this blog, they have a way to contact me. Then later, as the term of no issue came up for myself and my husband, it was a way to have the information out there for the future generations even after myself and my husband are gone. Why? Because the way it stands now, we have a no issue or we cannot have children, so our genes and memories of us will be gone after we are. This way, the information I've found can live on and any future generations can find the information I've tried to so hard to find.  
 

A picture quilt is a great way to remember ancestors

Before the no issue issue, one of the groups I'm involved with dared us to share what we've uncovered about our families. I sat down and thought of ways I could share information and this was one way to share information of generations past. This dare also lead me to create a few groups on Facebook (Gauquie/ Larson, Wojtkowski/Slepowron/Gardner, Ostrzycki, just to name a few) so information can be shared this way as well. Besides, what's the use of doing all of this work when it just sits there and no one learns from it?

An online timeline of your ancestors

Finally, on top of the above reasons (as if it weren't enough), I have started to put together my grandmother's documents and images of her life along with other information which might have affected her and her family, but its very slow going. First, I'm not confident enough with my writing to attempt something to big and, as one of my past managers have told me over and over, I'm a perfectionist. To do something that is not perfect would annoy me and frustrate me. Guess what? I hate to admit this but she is and was right. I'm still struggling and will continue with it, but its taking me a really long time to do this. 

Overall, the reason why I have this blog - its because things that are written here are because these people are OF MY FLESH AND BLOOD. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't exist and I have to pay homage to this fact.

Finding New Relatives

It might seem like I've completely stopped with my family history, but its far from the truth. I've had to lessen my searching because I'm currently looking for employment, but I haven't stopped.

Information Searching Overload
This is what I'm experiencing. I have so many different places to search for different ancestors, I'm suffering from overload. I have new areas I can search for my great grandmother's relatives and history near Denmark. I have a Facebook Group for my great grandfather's relatives in and around Belgium, which I keep finding new cousins and we're trying to link up our connections. Then there's the Polish relatives on both sides I'm still trying to put it all together. Finally, there is the DNA side of everything as well. Like I said, I'm on information and searching overload.

Taken from http://cdn.whisper.sh/050fb2257f43e5246053da4cced49e5cf39d5a-wm.jpg

Share the Information
I'm a big believer in sharing of information. This is why I've started up this blog, a Facebook Group and writing my grandmother's story up. I decided to start with her, because its the ancestor I have the most complete information about on. I thought it would be one of the easier ancestors to write about but was I wrong. I have had to research areas I would not have thought about otherwise. Then try and put all the information - including historical facts - together where it will make sense. Not an easy task I'm finding out.

A picture from the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153133583138470&set=gm.602230783210477&type=1&theater

The Facebook Group was a great idea as I was trying to share the same information with about 10 people. Now we've almost double that size, but the information that has been shared was much easier for everyone to look at, read and find.

Searching - where to start? 
I do, from time to time, give talks on genealogy for the community. I always tell them the first step is to write things down that they know of or heard and give estimated dates unless the real dates are known.

Next, I have them do a search in a search engine or Google the name of the person...and you'll never know what you'll find.

My Experiences with Searching using Ancestor's Names
I had my doubts about opening up a search engine and doing a simple search on an ancestor's name. When I did it, boy did I hit gold! I found many newspaper articles. Next up was I found the genealogy site called Geneanet for parts of Europe my ancestors came from. You can sign up for free and do simple searches and post in groups asking for help. I did this, and within about 4 weeks I found my great grandfather's line in Belgium. Within 2 months of signing up, I found a cousin in France. Since then, I have found a second cousin with more family in Belgium. Then when a cousin from my Facebook Group asked for a bit of help, I went looking for more of my great grandfather's line and found at least 2 more cousins that link up to my family history research. However, none of them at the moment link up to my cousin's family from Facebook but where her grandfather came from is the same area my many great grandfather's had came from, so we know we're related we just have to find the missing link.

I'm now also trying to use this same website to go back on my Polish and German sides of the family as well.

So never give up and give things you doubt a try. You never know what you're going to find out there!