Introducing "Growing Your Family Tree"

 Hello Farmgirl Sisters!

Welcome to my new genealogy blog! My name is Stacy Sundgren, Farmgirl Sister #7112 and I love genealogy. My goals with this blog are to share my own experiences in family research and hopefully inspire readers to pursue their own adventures into the fascinating world of discovering and documenting their family history.

My own genealogical journey started many years ago when I was a teenager. Both of my grandmothers told me all kinds of stories about their parents and grandparents. I was very fortunate to know three of my eight great-grandparents before they passed away. I had a lot of interesting information to get started with and a lot of curiosity to learn more. This was in the late 70's so I didn't have the internet to help with my searching. I wrote letters to different places asking for information, made phone calls and spent a lot of time with those older family members taking notes about things they remembered.

Those first few generations on my family tree were pretty easy to fill in. The grandparents were all alive at the time and they were happy to help me. I still have my handwritten notes from many of my conversations with them. But then I lost three of my grandparents within a two year period. My paternal grandparents, Mary and Morgan, died in 1979 and 1981, respectively. My maternal grandfather, Earl, died in 1980. It was a huge blow as all my grandparents had been very strong presences in my life. My maternal grandmother, Roberta, was the only one left. Roberta and Earl divorced and both remarried in the late 1950's, but Roberta was still very much connected to many of Earl's family members and she knew as much about his family as she did her own. I learned a lot about them from her. I was blessed to have ten more years with Roberta before she died in 1991. 

One day while I was visiting Roberta, she told me to look underneath a china cabinet in her dining room. There was a large cardboard box there and she asked me to pull it out. I got the box and set it on the table for her. She opened the box and said, "All of these things belonged to my mother. I want you to take all this and keep it. It will help you with your family research."

Inside that box was the most amazing collection of letters, photos and keepsakes from Roberta's parents and grandparents. There was an album with hundreds of postcards dating back to the early 1900's. Some things were dated into the late 1800's. The contents of that box were treasures of immeasurable value, not only for the wealth of genealogical information they held, but for the wonderful physical connection they gave me to the people they once belonged to.

Since those early days of my research, I’ve gone on to document both the maternal and paternal lines of my family tree for many generations. In future posts, I’ll talk about that, and I’ll also share practical advice about doing your own research.

My maternal grandparents, Earl and Roberta, ca.1938

My paternal grandparents, Mary and Morgan, ca. 1960

Stacy, age 5, with Great Grandfather Robert (Roberta’s father), 1967

I haven’t decided on a specific timetable for this blog, but I’m hoping 2-4 posts per month. My profile on Blogger says I’ve been a member since 2011, and I did try one blog, but didn’t feel comfortable writing online at the time. Now I’m ready to go again with this new blog focusing on a topic I love. I am still figuring out how a blog works and what all can be done with one. Hopefully I will be able to keep this one informative and easy to use.

The title of my next post will be – Yes, YOU Really CAN Do Your Own Research

Until then, Love, Live and Laugh each day to the fullest!

Stacy, Farmgirl Sister #7112