After a very busy couple of months and with Christmas and New Year thrown in for good measure, it’s time I got back to writing my family history stories.
Quite a few years ago, I joined in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. I’ve decided to give it another try this year as I’ve added many more stories to my family research.
The prompt for Week 1 is “In The Beginning” so I chose to write not necessarily about an ancestor, but about the beginning of my family history journey.
Here’s an except from my full post:
The manila envelope sat on my kitchen table, postmarked London, UK, holding what I hoped would be answers about my great-grandfather Adam Lymburner. It was 1986, and these envelopes represented weeks of waiting after carefully written letters, in duplicate, one to keep and one to send off with international reply coupons or Australian stamps for local queries.
Living in rural Western Australia meant that every genealogical pursuit required careful planning. Since most of our ancestors had immigrated to Australia generations ago, much of our research involved writing letters overseas and patiently waiting for replies. Our local library's modest collection of books and microfilm copies of the local newspaper, along with the small genealogical society's drawers of microfiche (which we members had funded through countless cake stalls), provided a starting point...
[Read the full story about my pre-internet genealogy journey and how times have changed at jenealogyscrapbook.com]
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