My name is Kathie Bennett and I am a genealogist. I might be considered an amateur by some, but I have been doing this since my early-20s. I have always loved history and have loved hearing stories of my family. As I have gotten older and more and more of my family has passed away, it makes me realize how important it is to listen to the stories of our elders. We should write them down so we can pass them on to our children and grandchildren. I wish I would have had the forethought to have written those stories down when I was young. But like most young people, I didn't give any thought to wanting those stories when I got older or wanting to pass them along. Even if I did consider it, I always thought "oh, I'll do it later, there's plenty of time." But time passed, as did the storytellers. Even though I do remember bits and pieces of the stories, I don't remember enough to make sense of them now. Sadly, those stories will die with my last two living elderly relatives when they pass.
As I stated before, I have been doing genealogy since my early-20s. It has been an ongoing endeavor, as I have stopped and started several times, oftentimes changing software, which sometimes meant starting fresh because I had lost my previous tree. My genealogy software of choice is Legacy's Family Tree. It is a free software, but the caveat with the free version is you have some limitations. The upgraded deluxe edition is around forty dollars, however, if you have a previous version, then it is around thirty. I would highly suggest upgrading to the deluxe edition if at all possible, but if not, then the standard edition works nicely. Of course, there are oodles of other genealogy software out there, and I think I've tried them all. LOL. I settled on Legacy and have been using it for several years now. I like the fact they offer free webinars on a plethora of subjects. Sometimes they only offer one a week, and other times there are two.
Back when I first started researching my family tree, I didn't have the advantage of using a computer and the Internet to do my search. I had to do it the old fashion way...I had to talk to relatives and look at family Bibles to get the family information, which is a great way to get firsthand information. Of course, there was also the courthouse and the local newspaper office. But if I wanted to know more about relatives from, say Virginia, I was basically S.O.L. unless I wanted to drive to Virginia. That would have been okay since I lived in West Virginia at the time, so the drive wouldn't have been so bad. Now, I no longer in West Virginia, so I have to rely on other ways of ascertaining information. I use many different family search websites to locate family I couldn't find in the past or that my family didn't know about or couldn't remember. My favorite is the Latter Day Saints' website, FamilySearch.org. I love that it is a totally free website, and they have over one billion records in their repository and more are added daily.
Well, that is all for today. Hope you come back again soon.
Peace, love and happiness...Namaste!
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