In fourth grade I was assigned a family tree project and that set off a life-long journey of researching my family history, and that of friends. I have found it quite addicting. For that project I did the most research on my stepmother’s family – interviewing her grandmother who came over in 1905 from Poland. She told me about coming to Detroit and how she lost part of one of her fingers working in a cigar-making factory (this was utterly fascinating to me and my brothers).

Later in college, I was again assigned a family tree project and one of my dad’s cousins gave me a family tree that they had been working on from my dad’s side of the family. Like just about every family tree, there were blanks, and questions and contradicting info. I began to become the “repository” for my family of old photos, stories and the family tree. I joined ancestry.com and really began to work on a family tree – sometimes staying up late into the night and then dropping it for months, sometimes years at time, when I became stuck. Of course, it is now easier than ever to research online, and I’ve learned more information, and gotten further back on some branches, than I ever thought would be possible. And then there are the branches where, although I’ve made progress, they are very hard to make much headway.

Through all of this though, I have learned a lot about my family and connected with relatives I didn’t know existed. And I’ve been able to keep the memory of people long since passed alive – and learn their stories.

Connected to my love of genealogy, is a love of history. I’ve always been fascinated by anything old – people, buildings, objects, etc. This led me to study historic preservation and to become a museum curator. I love to hold something old and wonder what its story is and imagine the hands that held it before me. Or to look at the faces of people in an old photo and wonder what their story is – what were their hopes, dreams and worries. And sometimes it’s possible through research to get a glimmer of this info. That is what I live for.

Through this blog I want to explore my family’s story while being present in my own story with my current (ahem, alive) family. Reviving old family traditions while creating new ones. Preserving my family history while also honoring and celebrating my present. I have become, what I call, “the family keeper” for my family.

Are you “the family keeper” of your family? Would you like to be? I’d like to hear about your family history and traditions and discuss ways we can bring them to life (their stories – don’t worry, no witchy stuff here, well unless your ancestor is a witch – I do have a great-grandmother that was killed in the Salem witch trials), and help you with where to get started to do all of this. If you’re interested in any of this, follow me on my journey and we can work on all of this together.