No More Leaf-Clicking

Nine months after signing on to ancestry.com, I've been able to trace my ancestors back farther than I ever thought possible. Not counting copying and printing charges, I've spent about $180. No telling how many hours I've invested clicking leaves.

Before ancestry.com, beyond my grandparents I was completely ignorant about my family tree. Not anymore. I've traced some lines back several hundred years and in a few cases, more than a thousand years.

Is the information accurate? Maybe. The more recent the person lived and died, the better I feel about the likelihood he or she is actually related to me. The farther back I go, the less confident I am about the results.

Learning about my ancestors has been interesting. Along the way I made some very interesting discoveries. I know more about my family history than anyone in the family, including things nobody wants to know.

My family tree research answered a lot of questions.It also raised a great many more. Unless traveling through time becomes possible, most will likely remain unanswered. Dead men (and women) tell no tales.

The curiosity that kept me clicking those damn leaves has been satisfied. In fact, I haven't clicked another leaf for a couple of months. After thinking about it for a while, I've canceled my membership to ancestry.com.

I did export the file with all the records to a GEDCOM file. If I want, I can buy software (for about $25 I hear) that will allow me to upload the file to peruse the records in my family tree. For now, I know all I care to know about the origins of...

The Crotchety Old Man