In June 2009, I received a phone call from Beckie Ferguson,
my 1st cousin twice removed. I had never met her, in fact, I didn’t even know she existed. It turns out that Beckie had been working on her genealogy for years and was trying to contact as many relatives as she could. I never did ask her how she got my cell phone number. I suspect that she found my brother and that he supplied her with my number.

My mother had died in December of 2008 and I was starting to think about delving into my own family history. After her death I discovered FindaGrave.com. I can’t remember exactly how I came upon it but that got me thinking about doing more. Beckie offered to send me her genealogy files and she needed some information about my family to fill in blanks on her tree. We share great grandparents on my mother’s side, Charles W. and Laura Anna Coffin Read.

In her files was a copy of the 1920 U.S. Census in Indianapolis, Indiana. As I scanned the document for my grandfather’s name, I saw at the bottom of the page, “Read, Frances M., daughter, age 4 11/12.” Perhaps others who research their family history have such a moment, but seeing my mother’s name in this census snapshot I was overcome with a wave of emotion that was completely unexpected. That was the FIRST time that I had such an overwhelming feeling. It was the FIRST time that I could look at a document and see an ancestor in her own time and place.

As I have continued to learn more about my family history I have come across other discoveries that have given me that thrilling ‘you are there’ kind of feeling. That’s just one aspect of doing genealogy that keeps me going.