First Encounters With Genealogy: Maternal Lineage

So you've taken a peak into my father's line, and not it's time for a look at my mom's.  It's a bit less complicated, and I had a smoother start than the other side.  While I was asking my mom about her parents, she mentioned that my grandma, who lives in the same city as us, has kept rather detailed information about her ancestors.  My mom also said that my grandfather and my uncle previously traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, and that my granddad was bound to have more information.

I began with the simplest source of information:  my grandma.  She comes to dinner every weekend, so asking her about her ancestors was easy.  She was ecstatic that someone else in the family was interested in our lineage, and that same night I drover her home, and she extracted three binders full of information.  Names appeared that I had never heard of before.  I began to peruse the contents excitedly and found a booklet called The Huse Family In America circa 1901, dating our ancestors back to Abel Huse of England in the 1600's.  My fingers raced through delicate pages that hadn't seen the light of day in decades.  I also uncovered information from our Sabin line that we thought to be French, but alas, English.  This new information gave me the boost I needed to further study my mom's side.

Two big mysteries on my mom's side include whether or not one of the lines on my grandfather's side, Bruce, is in fact related to Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.  Another question is if we're Irish as my grandmother claims we are in relation to one of her lines, Collins.  For the sake of my grandparents, I had to get to the bottom of this dilemma.

I will never forget how excited and elevated I felt that night.  I still have those binders in my closet along with all the other bits I've collected over the years.  Each time I find new information on my family, I still get a rush of excitement as if my ancestors were cheering me on to keep digging and to get one step closer to competing my family tree.  Some day I want to create separate bound books of all my predominant surnames on both my mom and dad's sides that would include pictures, stories, and pedigrees, so I can hand them down to my children or grandchildren, and they can experience the thrill that I've felt from this adventure.