{"id":822,"date":"2022-02-02T19:01:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T19:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/traceyourline.com\/?page_id=822"},"modified":"2022-12-11T15:06:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T15:06:37","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/traceyourline.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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About<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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I grew up with genealogy and history.\u00a0 My mother was our family historian, and as she conducted her research, I shared with her the thrill of discovering new ancestors — back in time through the Civil War, Revolutionary War, and colonial times.\u00a0 My ancestors lived the history that I was learning about in school.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

In genealogy a “flat ancestor” is someone about whom only the most basic data are known.\u00a0 Mom was very intentional about trying to add dimension to the people on our family tree.\u00a0 I will note that this was all before the advent of the personal computer and Ancestry.com.\u00a0 For the genealogists of those days, it was a slow, difficult slog through books, microfilm, documents, and communication by letter.\u00a0 We were always excited whenever she received another letter in the mail : What new revelations were inside?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Although I’m a professional librarian now, the lessons I learned from Mom and her fellow researchers are ones that have always guided me in my own research:\u00a0 focus on the facts and don’t be distracted by shiny objects; take the time and make the effort to understand your ancestors as people; never underestimate the importance of making connections with other researchers; and never give up.\u00a0<\/p>

I still get excited whenever I see a genealogy email appear in my inbox!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Steve Read<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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