Four Points - Ancestry of My Children

Why my interest in Geneology?

Way back in the 5th grade my interest in Genealogy was peaked by a school assignment to create your family tree (Thank you Mrs Yates). The assignment was due to the telecast of the adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family. My grandmother, a WASP, was always proud that she could trace her family back to John Alden of the Mayflower. In order to complete the assignment I used all the information she had. Oddly enough her information was not gathered by her, but by her sister-in-law. Needless to say I had the 'biggest' family tree in the class and aced the assignment. At the time, I thought this history stuff was all very cool, but dropped it for more typical 5th grade pursuits.

Fast forward to about 2003, when my mother was cleaning out her attic. She found a box of old papers and photographs. Included in the papers were my Great Aunt's papers she used to join the DAR. My mother asked me if I wanted the papers and my interest in my family history was reignited. This time I've been more diligent about it, and while I have periods when I do nothing, I've pretty consistently followed my many lines.

Of course it makes it much easier that on my side of the family, the newest immigrant was my mothers Grandfather. The next newest immigrant is another 3 or 4 generations back. Also making it easier is that my fathers side of the family stayed put in Massachusetts (with a quick jaunt to New Hampshire). The New England Historic Genealogical Society has been a great resource and I'm sure there is much more to mine from that particular repository.

My mothers ancestry is much more diverse (at least compared to my father). She has lines that go to Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England. While this has made it harder for me to find information, it also makes it more rewarding when I do find that clue which leads to great discoveries.

Since I consider my genealogy hobby as something to pass onto my children, I feel that I would be remiss if I did not examine my wifes family. Her family is certainly more mixed than mine. While I would say I am 90% or greater of English decent, my wife is a mix of French Canadian, German and Irish. Her fathers family is entirely French Canadian and has been on this content as long as mine. Her mothers family is a comparative newcomer; Germans and Irish that immigrated to New York City and the great American melting pot.

And why do I call it "Four Points"? I take the view that I am researching my childrens ancestry. In my opinion my childrens ancestry has four basic themes: