by Shelly 7296

Created on: October 24, 2010   Last Updated: October 25, 2010

The reason I started my family tree is to find long lost family members and also know more about my family.

I found a second cousin researching my family tree. She posted a message on cousinconnect.com and I replied. She did my family tree and emailed it to me.

I also had a membership to ancestry.com ( when I had a job) another member scanned death certificates of my ancestors. I found out that my Grandpa on my dads side he was born 1909, his mother ( my great grandmother) died October 18, 1918 from the flu My grandpa would of been 9 years old. Then my grandpa's little sister died January 1, 1919 she was only 3 months old it was pneumonia. My Grandpa was raised my his grandma and dad.  When I deal with the struggles in my life, losing my job, not being able to pay all of my bills, dealing with the bad economy, I think about all the struggles that my Grandpa went through and if he can survive so can I.

I also learned that another ancestor who was only 3 months old died from exhaustion.

When I looked at the death certificates of my ancestors that a member on ancestry.com scanned I have learned that a lot of children did not make it to one year old. There were a lot of still births and when a child died, the father had to sign the death certificate.

I also learned that my great great grandparents were from Prussia Poland and they were farmers. They immigrated to Port Austin Michigan. I also learned on my moms side of the family that her family members were from France , Canada and Poland.

it is very interesting to know who you are and were you came from. It is also very interesting to see pictures of your relatives and learned how they lived their lives.

My ancestors were very strong people and what they did for me. They lived in foreign countries and they immigrated to the United States of America and if my ancestors didn't immigrate to the United States of America I would not be here because my parents would not of met.

My great great great grandmother was a single mother of two girls. I wonder what it would be like to be a single mother in the 1700's. What she went through.  Did people accept her?.

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