Archives 2011: It’s natural to want to know where you came from…

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never looked backward to their ancestors” ~ Edmund Burke [1729-97]

 

What I have been up to…

For the past week – I have spent most of my spare time either on ancestry or politics – two of my favorite subjects.  I spent most of that time on ancestry because…

I found my paternal family in the 1940 Census!

I had just about given up hope with both the first and last name being incredibly common names but I am sure I have the right family.  All the details I had been told match.  Everything fits.  I am now back to 1810, but have hit a road block.  I will find the next generation back, because, I think that generation is perhaps the generation that immigrated from their home country.

I now know 75% of my nationalities – before last week I only knew 50%!

It’s been a good week…Now I know that both sides were good, hardworking, decent, honest people.  People to be proud of.

I found some quotes that seemed right for this post…

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays 2, 1926-29

“Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.” ― Noam Chomsky

Quotes above from goodreads.com

What was your week like?

 

April 2, 2012…

A day I have looked forward to since 2005 when I learned my father’s name and after I found out he did not want contact.  A date when I could start exploring my family history by learning the names of my paternal grandparents in the 1940 census.  The starting point I needed to start my final family tree.

The day I was counting down to in this post.

Well, that day has come and gone.  That day I logged on and was disappointed.  The next days and the following week were disappointing too.  Seven weeks later I am still disappointed.  The hype leading up to it and after as a paid subscriber of ancestry.com was intense.  The lack of specifics that the census would be released but not searchable, must have been hidden deep in the advertising because I did not see it.  The ongoing lack of any projections on when states would be searchable is not visible to me on the site.  To date they have the following states – NV, DE, DC, ME searchable – seven weeks later this is all they have done.  Any other state you need to at least know the district and then must scan through each page individually from that district.  I don’t know the state, let alone the district.  I have an idea of which state they may have lived in, but other than an idea I have zero information except my father’s name and age at the time of the census.  My grandparents could have lived in any state for all I know.  That’s a lot of districts in a lot of states to search each page from the 1940 census.  What good is having that subscription if it does nothing for me? 

It is excruciatingly painful to be so close and yet so far…after waiting so long.

It makes me angry that I still don’t know the other 50% of who I am…

I’m getting downright snarky…I just want to know and really don’t think it is too much to ask to know when they expect to have each state, by state, indexed and searchable.  Is that really so much to ask?