User:Charnees

I started in genealogy after I retired when I tried to find out if my family was related to Daniel Boone. I found out we were not, but did find my great-grandfather and great-grandmother Boon and a lot of cousins. That g-grandfather is still a brick wall after 11 years!! But that started me looking for other ancestors, and I became infected with the genealogy virus -- I can't stop looking for just one more clue to the mystery men and women. I found that most of them on my mother's side came from England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Scotland. On my father's side were a big Norwegian family I have traced back to about 1600 on a farm on a fjord. The Swedish grandfather is another mystery. I also have my husband's genealogy, compiled by a cousin in Holland years ago.

The best part of genealogy is how it has kindled my interest in history. It helps me understand how my ancestors lived, what they experienced, why they went to new places. It has also helped me learn how to do research, put clues and timelines together, and, importantly, document what I put in my genealogy. It has kept me mentally active. We traveled to Holland to see my husband's family's homes. We have traveled to Norway and found the farm where my ancestors lived. We went to my mother's childhood home and found the house made of stone my grandfather quarried from their homestead site, with my mother's initials secretly carved over a window (she wrote about it in a story).

I have been married for 53 years, and my husband and I like to read, travel, and eat good food -- especially Italian. We are going to Italy again in 2008 for the 13th or 14th time. We also like getting out into national parks, hiking, and camping (although we are not willing to sleep on the ground any more!) We live near San Francisco. We have a son and daughter, and a grandson and granddaughter who are our great joy. We exercise regularly and like the notion that the 70's are the new 60's -- or maybe 50's.