This is the first of several posts catching up on recent family history breakthroughs.
These are the fan charts for my paternal grandmother's parents, pre-July 1st and present. You can see there's been a great amount of expansion for both William Robert Roach and Hazel Louise Allen. Why these two in particular? Two words, Family Reunion.
It's been years since I attended a family reunion and even longer since I went to one for this section of the family. One such reunion, in 1976, included a pamphlet with the Allen family history that was absolutely vital when I started my own research over 20 years ago. When this reunion started coming together, I started making plans to continue that tradition with my own research.
Throughout July I used Ancestry and GeneaNet to pad out additional generations for both sides of the family, taking some back numerous generations. These charts were created in Reunion, the Mac-based genealogy software I've relied on for several decades now. Ancestry now offers a fan-chart for each person in your tree, but only going back two generations.
A few days before the gathering, I had the finalized charts printed in black and white on 3' by 4' blueprint paper and brought them for my aunts, uncles, and cousins to peruse. I also had my laptop, open to my Ancestry tree, able to bring up any individual profile, but also connect with distant cousins that have been doing their own research. There will be more to come on this, including an interesting story, so be sure to check back as I fill in more on my genealogical adventure.
