I have recently been reaching out to members of my husband's family, trying to finish up interviews and gather as many old photographs as I can in order to complete the family history book. A planned interview for this weekend with a senior member of the family had to be postponed due to illness, but hopefully will be rescheduled soon.
In the meantime, I have reached out to some of my husband's cousins. Through one cousin, I was put in contact with an in-law who has reportedly done extensive research on the family. I only recently found this out and am anxious to see what he has compliled in his research and trips to Croatia. Once he had my email address, he was more than willing to share his information with me, and will be sending me his findings next week.
I have also contacted a few people through the message service offered by ancestry.com, and they have all been willing to help out with information on their branches of the family. Consequently, there are now 3055 names in my husband's family tree. After my upcoming interviews, I expect to add a few more.
Of course, the internet and specifically ancestry.com has made all of this possible. When I think of my father trying to gather information through letters and phone interviews, writing to libraries and city records' offices, and only towards the end using email, I realize how fortunate we amateur genealogy sleuths are. Much of what we search for is online, thanks to the efforts of countless volunteers who have taken the original records and put them there.
And as these generous genealogists share their findings with each other and the entire genealogical world, and as we who benefit from their generosity are able to add more and more names to our family trees, it becomes clearer and clearer how connected we all are to each other, not just electronically, but also biologically.
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