Traditions

My family research began with a simple Family Bible page given to me by my father Paul Prince Adelman. This was the Family page from his mother’s family, the Max Meyer family. I was so excited and worked with a German translator to know every word on these pages. You have to understand that my father had 1 sister who had 2 sons – that was the entirety of my extended family. I would see my 2 cousins now and then, but we did not have family dinners or holidays together, and soon we became adults and had no contact with each other.

 I now held in my hands 3 generations of family names and the “bug” to find more. Even better than the names on the pages I now had, I began to feel “connected” to these names, as if I knew them, which just made me WANT to know more!

So I purchased a genealogy database management system and began entering all the information that I had. Then I noticed a SOURCE button and wondered what that was. So I took an online class for beginning genealogists.  What – you are supposed to REASERCH your ancestors. You mean this family bible page could be wrong! Okay – well I like a challenge and better yet – I love a puzzle. So my long nights and endless days of sitting in front of computers – flying to New York for days on end and pages of notes began. 

What began as a search to validate the Max Meyer family bible page, turned into a search for all my ancestor’s.  So I began with my father of course, added his father and thought – this is going to be easy, I will just ask my dad what his grandfathers name was and his aunts and uncles names and I would just call them and this would be a piece of cake! Right? Wrong! Remember the lack of family dinners and link to my cousins and aunt and uncle – well come to find out that this did not begin with my father and mother. My father did not know the name of his aunts or uncles or even his grandparents. WHAT?!? How do you not know the names of your family?                 Game On!!

I am proud to say that my brothers and sisters and I have changed this family “tradition”. We see each other as often as possible, and my only brother that lived far from us, just moved within 30 miles of all of us in order to allow his son to grow up knowing his cousins, aunts and uncles. We truly love each other and cherish the relationships we have with each other – even if it is just this generation! My parents still live far from their children, but with the miracle of technology such as computers, airplanes and phones – we see them as often as possible. However, this generation, we are proud to say, knows each other and our children know each other – and a new family tradition has been established! 
Happy Linking! Your “Cousin”, Carole