The Embarkation of our Journey

Preface

This family history project is a journey of discovery, and this website is a living work-in-progress. I’m starting with a core structure and will continually add new content and features over time. Don’t be surprised if the format and layout shift—those changes are a sign that I’m learning, experimenting, and integrating the best ways to share our family’s story.

But a little house keeping first.  Since this will be a public facing site, I will attempt to be as sensitive as possible when listing any kin that are still living.  Any living kin will only be listed as first initial and last name (maiden).  I am debating about listing a year of birth to allow other family members the ability to distinguish one person from another, but only were required.  But we absolutely can not list full dates of birth.  If there are any issues or concerns over privacy, please let me know and I will work to correct it for you.

Proband

Since I am the one writing and developing this site, research, and content, I will be taking on the role of the ‘proband.’ (A proband, in the language of genetics and genealogy, is the ‘person being studied’ or the ‘subject of inquiry.’)  For something to have a beginning, there must be a starting point, the embarkation of our journey to build the book of us.  Often the best method is the simplest method, so I will start with myself.

With that information in mind, so instead of this being the “descendants of…”, these works will be more of the “ancestors of….well…ME!”.  No, that is not an attempt to be egotistical, but rather a logical approach to attempt to trace the complex trail of all of my ancestors.  If you are still here, I hope that you might be one of the various cousins that could be out there.

Initial Confusion

Our journey is only just beginning, and there is already some confusion that I will need to sort out. I am the proband (the central figure in this research), and I am adopted. So, genetically, I am not part of the family lines I will focus on the most. But I was adopted as an infant, and this is the only family I knew growing up. So, I very much consider my adoptive family MY family. This was the family I grew up knowing, the members and kin that helped raise me, the stories that I was told over the years. Even though I have tracked down my maternal biological family and have become very close with some of them, they are still more like close friends than family. But shouldn’t all family members be your close friends? With that perspective, I will be attempting to document both my adoptive and biological lines.

So, just to make it even more confusing, my family tree splits right at the beginning.