A year ago I lost my job. I stayed busy in between my employment searches in order to fight off stress and depression. One night, I discovered the television show “Who Do You think You Are?” on NBC. Actress Lisa Kudrow is one of the executive producers of the show. It is a show about celebrities researching their genealogy. Lisa Kudrow participated in Season 1 of the series. Other celebrities were Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Emmet Smith, Matthew Broderick, Spike Lee. Season 2 just ended with Vanessa Williams, Rosie O’Donnell, Tim McGraw, Kim Catrall, Lionel Ritchie, Steve Buscemi and Ashley Judd.
To see the actors go through a journey of transformation as they uncovered their families past was very emotional and empowering. I watched in awe as the participants slowly uncovered their family history of tragedies and triumphs.
I decided I wanted to know where I came from and I wanted my children to know what legacy they are apart of. On the show, the actors have assistance from genealogy researchers along with the databases of Ancestry.com. I knew I could get started with Ancestry.com to create my family tree.
I started out with a free trial from Ancestry.com to see if I wanted to take on my own personal family journey. I like to research information, so why not research something that would be of great benefit for me and my family. Also I thought this project would be a great way to keep my mind off of my unemployment status.
Ancestry.com allows you to build a family tree. First, I started with my parents, my brother, me, my children, my ex-husband and current husband. Second, I added my grandparents, their siblings and their children. The more family members who are living can make it easier to build your family tree.
One great feature of Ancestry.com is that you can send invitations to other members of your family and they can help build your tree. You can send them a link and they can add their information. You can also receive information from other family trees that are public on Ancestry.com for possible family connections.
Once you have established your tree, you can then add records to the members of the tree. You can search for records through the various databases on the website. Marriage, Death, Social Security Index, Military Records, the list goes on and on. If you have your own documents or media you can scan or attach these items to the tree also.
You receive notifications when Ancestry.com has possible records for your family member. A little green leaf appears on the edge of your family members tab. When I see the green leaf, it is like Christmas for me. It’s like finding a hidden treasure.
I started my tree March, 2010. I am still adding family members and records to my tree. I want to see my tree have complete information – marriage, death , birth dates are complete. I don’t know if this will happen but I am going to keep it up until I-Find-It. I have learned a lot about my family and will be passing my tree to my children.
Are you ready to discovery your legacy? Start with your free trial at Ancestry.com
