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Archiver > ILFRANKL > 2003-07 > 1057717161


From: "Pat Ratcliff" <>
Subject: Re: Simple question for everyone...
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 22:19:24 -0400
References: <BD68D7F82E64D5119A8800B0D0790858736420@sjvem1.sjvls.org>


I started when I had the opportunity to visit England and had some names,
but only confirmed information I already had. Later, I went to conference
in MI and tried to look up my great-aunt but the telephone number was no
longer in service. I tried Information but no luck. I was working in Japan
at the time. When I got back to Japan, I did an on-line search, and an
angel at the Kalamazoo, MI library looked to see if there was an obit, and
sure enough there was. This was the last living connection to my mother's
family, and no one had let us know that she had died.
The obituary had a lot of information in it that I had not known, and that
is what got me started. It was hard doing research from Japan, and then
Germany, but I found several on-line cousins. I found two first-cousins,
once removed, one on my father's side, and one on my mother's side. My
mother was an only child.

Pat Ratcliff
Conover, NC
Researching RATCLIFF, GRABILL, BUTTON, HICKS,
DEWITT, BUTTS, WHEAT, PUTNAM, KENNEDY,
COREY, BURCHETT, TUTTLE
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/a/t/Patricia-Louise-Ratcliff/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scroggins, Melissa" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 18:05
Subject: Simple question for everyone...


> Dear Listers.
> I hope you will all be willing to help me out. I am teaching a genealogy
> class in August and I would appreicate if you could answer a question for
> me. I am teaching librarians, some of them "don't get it."
>
> Why did you start doing genealogy?
> Some samples I came up with. Curiosity, clear up a family story, sounded
> like a good hobby, medical reasons. A hopeless addiction passed on by a
> relative. Or Something else.
>
> Personally, I started because no one wanted to talk about the family and
I
> wanted to know why. Turns it out there is no big story they just thought
no
> one cared about farm life and growing up during the depression. How wrong
> they were.
>
> Thanks for the help.
> Melissa
>
>


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