Thursday, March 13, 2014

Thankful Thursday

The one question that people always ask me, in regards to genealogy, is

How did you get started?

Today I will answer that question -

My maternal grandmother, Helen had a book in her home and it was her father's.  When I was about thirteen years old - I started to read this book and I found it very interesting (probably because it was in Italian and there was a very important list on Page 1)  It was like a register book to keep track of business receipts. My great grandfather owned a grocery store, so that made sense.
In this book, on Page 1,  written in Italian script was a list of all his children and birth dates and birth times.

We called it - "Grandpa's book" or the "Family Tree book" - It was very neat and precise... This is the "Book" that caused me to have an interest in my family heritage and it's what started it all for me! I am now the proud owner of this book! It's very old and falling apart but I am so thankful that my great grandfather, Domenico Giammaria wrote in this book and my Grandma Helen was the one child  that ended up with it!!


He continued to write about all his children's marriages and all his grandchildren too.  This is how I started my family tree, with his information. I'm sure he would be very happy to know that I continued his tradition of keeping track of his family!!