Welcome to My Personal Quest for Ancestors

In trying to clean out a huge attic-like walk in closet, I ran across pages of an old family Bible. It listed family members and marriages up to my great grandfather, John Hegeman Cornell. The Bible was apparently given to him in 1882, which was the year my Grandfather, Franklin Thorne Cornell, was born. Unfortunately it is inscribed: “To John Hegeman Cornell from his parents.” No mention of who they were! And so, the curiosity began. And with it, the quest to go back.

Of course, it is this curiosity — and the quest it enduces –on which Ancestry.com and similar sites capitalize. And so it was with me….onto Ancestry.com I went.

Well, not immediately. First, of course, I went to where everyone goes to sleuth: Google. And I googled in “John Hegeman Cornell” New York. And low and behold, someone actually found a grave of a John Hegeman Cornell in Queens New York, about the age my Grandfather had to have been, not far from where all my family was born and grew up. Catch: It was on “Find-a-Grave” findagrave.com . And you had to join. And thus began the chain of enticements to join genealogical sites. But the excitement grew.

So, there we go!  Welcome to the first blogpost.