I started working in genealogy about 13 years ago. My motivation was to permanently capture the work my father and Hazel’s grandmothers had done. Once I began the project, I was hooked. Genealogy is like detective work, you find a clue and work it to the end and start on another clue. It is great fun. I have as well found many people that have been extremely helpful in my quest for data and my roots.
I chose to use Family Tree Maker for my Windows based genealogical tool and GeneWeb for my web based records. I have sense moved to Ancestry where I have continued to build my history and integrate in my DNA history.
My family is almost exclusively English, Irish, Welch, and Scottish. Hazel’s family is English, Irish, Welch, Scottish, German, French, and Norwegian. Of course, my little girl has a proud Dravidian heritage from the Telangana in South Central India. I also worked to document her heritage which is just as important as our biological heritage.
I can not even begin to thank all of the people that have helped on this ongoing project, so a blanket thank you goes out the all of the kind people that contributed.
One of the hidden benefits of genealogy for me was a renewed interest in history. Since I am dyslexic, I never enjoyed history as it seemed to be all about memorizing facts and this was something I simply was not good at. I learn best when I have a context to put the facts into and now that I am researching my family, history has come alive. What a great hidden benefit. This genealogical project is dedicated to my parents. I could not have asked for more loving and kind parents! I feel lucky to have grown up in my family. My father was the one in the family that did so much research on the Inman’s.
The picture above is a picture of dad when he graduated from high school in mid 1920’s while he still had hair. He contracted typhoid fever soon thereafter and lost all of his hair. My mother took care of the family while my dad worked.
My DNA research has uncovered a wonderful history of my mothers Joyce family. I can now document my lineage to the 1100’s in north Scotland. I have joined a group of researchers who I am related to going back to the foundation of the Joyces. This line, Joass, moved to Ulster Northern Ireland due to religious reasons and the grand father I am related to was born there and then moved to the colonies when he was 40 with his brother. This line is well documented. It is quite exciting to now be a formal member of the Clan Joyce of Ulster with our own medalion and tartan.
