by: srweaver
My interest in genealogy began at a very early age, and began with the identifying and perserving the family photos. As a teenager, I loved looking at my mother's photos and by the time I was fifteen, I was organizing, archiving and identifying the family members in the photos. I have been the custodian of my mothers photos every since then.
As I got older I wanted to know more about the people in those pictures and the lives that they lived. I purchased my first genealogy software when I was in my twenty's and I began adding the stories and information that I had about my family.
Unfortunately, my great-grandmother Katie Steinbauer Skalicky died when I was 21, and I did not have the foresight to talk to her about her life when I was a teenager. However, one of my prize treasures is a story that Grandma Katie wrote about her and her husband's life together and the lives of each of their parents.
Fast forward to present day almost 20 years later, and I now have over 5000 relatives that have been found. In addition, I am still the caretaker of the photo's and have been digitizing, organizing and sharing the family photos and have over 4000 family photos. At 41, I talk to family, friends and acquantiances about genealogy and my family research. I frequent Libaries, on-line data basis, and cementaries.
My current project is to update and verify my paternal grandmother's family. She was the daughter of George and Esta (Dickinson) McGillivray, and one of eighteen children. George and Esta were each one of 17 children. Thankfully, a number of family members have started this project prior to me. Therefore, I have places to start, but the information is incomplete and has errors. I am searching the records, contacting known and unknown relatives in my search to develop an acurate tree for this family, and find the stories of how they lived.