Phew! I am tired today. Went through a box of genealogy research. I may be off a little, but I have 8 or more banker's boxes of genealogy papers, most gathered in the 1980s when my grandmother went on a genealogy kick. The woman was kinda amazing given that we didn't have the net for easy research. I can only imagine what she would have done with ancestry.com. She was old-school and went to state libraries and also requested records from government agencies.
I got sucked into ancestry.com's free 2-week trial over a year ago--it was so addictive, I was a little concerned for myself. When I canceled after two weeks, I was glad--I might have needed an intervention. Anyways, today I went through a few family lines and sorted papers into folders, writing names in huge print for easier future access. I continually see that my grandmother's research matches up with what's online, and sometimes it's useful for filling in some details. I am nowhere near retirement age, but I can see how people can spend a lot of time researching this stuff. I probably know a lot more about my family members than most people my age.
Because of my ancestry.com connections, a member contacted me to tell me my great-grandmother was 1/64 Cherokee. That makes me...1/512 or 0.001953125 Cherokee. Something to say at parties, I guess? Fun to know nonetheless. And before the net, Grandma had tracked most of that line if not all of it. Impressive. She could have been an investigative reporter, perhaps?
From a decluttering perspective, I don't have to save every paper because a lot of it is online today. Another win for technology and more space for me.
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