Happy Father's Day to all the dads in the world, past and present

Family history pays a majority of its attention to patrilineal lines of genealogy but besides passing along to us our names, fathers have a great influence on their children and who their children become through both their presence and their absence, in that way influencing each successive generation. So today we remember all the fathers on our trees, as well as the mothers who act as both father and mother either through choice or loss, we remember the good and the bad about them, because everything they did or didn't do, whether it be your father, grandfather, or seventh great grandfather, has influenced the person you are today...isn't that cool?

A special shout out to my own father, Tim Gorry, who is the only member of my immediate family who thinks genealogy is as fun and interesting as I do...thank you for letting me share all my discoveries with you and not have your eyes glaze over, and thank you for all the research and fieldwork you do yourself to help grow and enrich our family tree! And another special shout out to my fiance Sam, who is celebrating his first Father's Day today - thank you for the gift of our beautiful baby girl, the next generation of our now combined family tree!

Sam and our 10 week old daughter Elena.

Old school - with my dad at the beach. Probably Jones Beach, probably 1980.

Indiana Jones and the genealogical pursuit

My 2-month old is down for a rare nap and not only was I inspired yesterday to write about this but Cousin April over at Digging Up the Dirt on My Dead People just wrote about this too so it look like it was meant to be!

First, the thoughts that were going through my mind - yesterday I was watching a documentary on Indiana Jones and real life archaeology and as with anytime I see or hear anything about history, it was making me itch to do some genealogy. And while I was thinking how cool it would have been to be out in the field, in search of mystery and adventure, like an archaeologist like Indiana Jones and lamenting the fact that the golden age of archaeology was long over, I was thinking about how genealogy is kinda like archaeology, because the fieldwork is so important to finding and solving those mysteries about our family trees.

So Cousin April was talking about the broadcast yesterday on Radio Boston about the impact of technology on genealogy - please visit the link above to read more about the interview and April's opinions on it. As I've stated before, I love that the Internet has exposed more people to genealogy and piqued their interest in it, that it's made more documents and databases available to us and helped us break down previously impassable brick walls, and that it has helped us connect with distant family members and share our collective knowledge about our trees. The Internet has also, unfortunately, helped spread a lot of bad information, because it's so easily accessible; it has made genealogy a copy-and-paste hobby for a lot of folks; and it has made some people forget (or maybe they never realized!) the importance of genealogical fieldwork. It's not just about finding your grandparent's address in a census on Ancestry.com - it's, if possible, visiting the address or neighborhood and seeing if the house is still there and how much the neighborhood has or hasn't changed. It's not just finding a death certificate or record on Familysearch - it's going to the cemetery to visit the headstone (or lack thereof - that alone will tell you whether or not your family was poor or well-off) and seeing if you can find out who else might be buried there and who the plot belongs to. And it's realizing that some of the most pertinent information you are seeking probably ISN'T online - it's in a tiny church's hand-written recordbooks, or in an old newspaper that's only available on microfilm at the library, or in the dusty archives of your local town hall, or maybe even in your own grandmother's photo album or diary.

So, technology, yay; but also, fieldwork, yay.

The other thing I was contemplating as I fell asleep last night was how multi-disciplinary genealogy is, which Cousin April also touches on. Genealogy doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens in a geographical area, and it happens in a historical time period. It's not just about collecting names and dates, although that can be fun. It's about what happened in between the birth date and death date, about our ancestor's lives. I love a name and date when I've finally broken through a brick wall, but eventually, I want a place, too, and maybe an occupation. In my dreams, all my ancestors would be fleshed out individuals - I would be able to know their whole stories. That will never happen. But each of us has at least one ancestor we can round out - when and where did they live? Did they grow up on a farm or in the city? Did his mother die when he was young? Did he have any siblings? Did he follow in his father's occupational footsteps? Did he emigrate to another country? Why did he - were the reasons economic? Religious? Was he escaping a war? Was he a youngest son with no other prospects? Was he just an adventurous spirit? Are there any newspaper articles about him? Was he a productive member of society? Was he a social misfit or pariah? When he died was he able to afford a funeral? His own cemetery plot? A headstone? Are there any photos? Do I have his eyes or his mouth? His temperament? These are the things I want to know as a genealogist. These are the mysteries I want to solve. When it comes to genealogy, I want to be Indiana Jones - how about you? :)

TLC Brings NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Back From the Grave (Exclusive)

Thanks to Cousin April of Digging Up the Dirt on My Dead People for passing along this info to me. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love this show (even went to a panel discussion for it  featuring Lisa Kudrow, Blair Underwood, and Kim Cattrall at the Paley Center last year), so all I have to say is...woo hoo! :)

TLC Brings NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Back From the Grave (Exclusive)

New episodes premiere July 23. 

Read about the WDYTYA panel discussion I attended, which was awesome by the way, in my blog post  here.

Introducing the newest blossom on my family tree...

Happy birthday, Elena!

Elena at 5 days old, already deep in thought and contemplating the world around her...

On April 6, 2013, I welcomed my daughter, Marielena "Elena" Luz Hall, into the world, the newest blossom in my family tree, and the first of the next generation on my particular branch (my parents' first grandkid).

If you can't tell, she's named after me, Mary Ellen. Her father is Honduran, and so it was important for me to incorporate his ethnic and cultural heritage, and therefore my daughter's, into her name, especially since her last name, Hall, doesn't reflect her Latina heritage at all. Hence, Mary Ellen en espanol becomes Marielena - and because that's such a mouthful for such a little girl, it becomes Elena for short.

Mary Ellen in particular is an important family name for me, a tradition that goes back generations on my father's side of the family. But Mary and variations of Ellen individually are important recurring names, and so, Marielena is the latest in a long line of women I'm so proud to call family, and her name honors them all, including but not limited to my mother, Margaret Mary; my aunts, Mary Ellen and Ellen; my grandmothers Helen Stutzmann Gorry and Mary Cronin Raynor; my great-grandmothers, Mary Ellen Tormey Gorry, Helen Haase Stutzmann, Amelia Ellen Berg Raynor, Ellen Marie Casey Cronin; my great-great grandmothers, Mary Ellen Horgan Gorry, Ellen Prendergast Tormey, and Mary Enright Casey; my 3rd great grandmothers, Mary Corr Gorry, Ellen Prendergast, and Mary Story Poole, and I'm sure many, many more even further back than that.

On top of it all, Elena came very close to sharing a birthday with her great-grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor...I went into the hospital April 5, which was my grandmother's 98th birthday. I was kinda hoping for them to share a birthday but I think my grandmother was happy her first great-granddaughter got her very own day (happy belated birthday, by the way, Grandma!)

Having a newborn and being a new parent is both extremely exciting and extremely overwhelming, so I probably will not be updating this blog for awhile, and at least not as frequently as I have in the past - to everyone who has followed me over the years, thank you so much, and I promise I'm not disappearing forever - please check in on me every once in awhile to see when I start back up again. In the meantime, continue all your good genealogy work, and the best of luck in finding all the family you're searching for!!

Social media breaking down family history barriers

Great story by Dana Rimington of the Standard-Examiner out in Utah. If you've seen this story or follow this blog (or any blog or tweets or Facebook posts etc etc), you already know how influential social media has become in helping us share our family history stories and research. A couple of good quotes from Thomas MacEntee over at Geneabloggers.com. The physical legwork of genealogy remains largely the same - for example, a cousin of mine trekked out to Lutheran Cemetery today to visit a gravesite and get info on that site from the cemetery office, but social media has changed the availability and dissemination of that info - for example, this is a cousin I've never met, and we've connected through the online genealogy community. His physical visit is helping grow my family story, and vice versa in other situations. All I can reiterate is - keep sharing!

Social media breaking down family history barriers

From Aintitcoolnews.com: ‘Jesus!!’ The Christopher Guest HBO Comedy Series FAMILY TREE Gets Its First Tease!!

From Ain't It Cool News:

"Christopher Guest, who co-wrote “This Is Spinal Tap” before he went on to co-write and direct the similarly improvised comedies “Waiting For Guffman,” “Best In Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration,” writes, directs and co-stars in “Family Tree,” the tale of a man researching his own genealogy.

Hitting HBO in May, it stars Chris O’Dowd (who played love interest to Jemima Kirk and Kristen Wiig in “Girls” and “Bridesmaids,” respectively), with support from Guest’s usual movie repertory company (Fred Willard, Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban, Don Lake, and so on)."

If you've never seen any of Christopher Guest's movies, you're missing out on some wry, dry, ridiculous humor. And for the record, I would just like to say that I knew about and loved Chris O'Dowd way before anybody ever "discovered" him in "Bridesmaids."

So between Guest and O'Dowd and of course, the subject matter - genealogy, yay! - I definitely want to see this show. I think we all know that besides the frustration and joys that genealogy can bring, it can also bring the funny and ridiculous. Plus, anything that puts genealogy in the mainstream? More, please!

Women's History Month: The Casey women

Cousin April over at Digging up the Dirt on my Dead People posted a lovely old photo of some of the women in her family and their children, which made me remember I also have a favorite old photo of some of the women in my family, so I thought I'd post it for Women's History Month.
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And for once, it's a photo that's been labeled!!! (Thank you Grandma (Mary Cronin Raynor)!!! It is most definitely her handwriting...) Although, unfortunately, there is no date. We can guess though! My grandmother looks similar in age to her wedding photo, but she's labeled herself with her maiden name, so let's guess she's about 30 which would make this photo from about 1945.

The location is Coney Island - getting photos taken at Coney Island was a big thing for the Casey and Cronin families in my tree. This photo is of the Casey women. From left to right we have: Maggie Casey Booth Casey (yes, her maiden name and second married name are both Casey), Mary Cronin, Molly Casey Murray, Elizabeth Casey Costello, Jenny Casey Travers, Ellen Casey Cronin, and Swanhild Nelson Casey. Maggie, Molly, Elizabeth, Jenny, and Ellen are sisters, and Swanhild is their sister-in-law. Mary Cronin is the daughter of Ellen. Ellen Casey Cronin is my great-grandmother, and Mary Cronin (later Raynor) is my grandmother. It's nice seeing all these women together, seeing all these sisters still close to each other even as adults, still traveling to Coney Island like a bunch of young girls to take a souvenir photo together.