And so it begins.....

Hi. Since this is my first blog I should probably introduce myself;   I'm 'LadyAlaise'.
  After much hmming and hawming I decided to try my hand at a blog, and like the Blog title suggests; this will be a journey for me and for those who will read this. And so, in the spirit of new beginnings I will explain a bit on how I got on this journey of family tree research.
    As I remember it;  When I was was 12 years old my Nana started telling me stories about her mother's and father's families; the Dunlea's and the Wilson's.
  Her mother was one of the "Dunlea Sisters of Pigeon Cove", as she put it, born, here in Massachusetts, to Irish Immigrants escaping the horrible famine from 'across the pond'.  She told me how her Grandfather, John, was a "Stone Mason" and how her Grandmother, who was a Boyle, her mother, and 8 Aunts worked in the Shoe Factories of that time.
   Her father, she said, was adopted into his family, the Wilson family, and he worked for an early telephone company in New England.
    She told me how when she was about the age of 6, she was playing 'Cowboys and Indians' in front of her home with her two brothers, she said she always was the 'indian', and her father, home from work was watching them. He was a "big bear of a man", very tall and strong. After some time he called my Nana over and bent down to her and asked:
"Would you like to know a secret?"
"Yes!" She answered.
"We're Indian...but SHHHH! You can't tell anyone, you have to keep it a secret."
I guess that both my Nana and her brothers asked more questions as they got older because Nana was able to tell me more about his mysterious origins.
She said how Wilson wasn't his original surname, that his surname was "Martissee" or "Martaise" or "Mahtis",(keep in mind that she and her family all had pretty thick Boston Accents)  and that his biological Grandmother or great Grandmother was supposedly a "Chiefs daughter".  Both My Nana and her brother my Great Uncle told me (at seperate times) about all this.

I was in absolute Awe; awe that they could know all this stuff about people who had lived "back then", about people who were no longer around to tell it how they knew it, about these people who I had come from!  My curiosity was snagged by the unanswered questions about her mother and father; Where in Ireland did her mother's family come from? What did they look like? Did I look anything like them? What did they think about? What had they lived through? Who were my Great Grandfather's biological family? Where had he come from? Was he really part Native American?
This curiosity never ebbed.
I began to wonder how I was 'related' to those people and to the children and grandchildren and so on of them and their families; I began to wonder about the abstracted context within that of my own life, on where I fit in 'my family tree' on what that meant. It dawned on me not long after, that if the people my Nana told me of, my ancestors, had not made the decision to leave Ireland, or for my Great Grandparents, if they hadn't gotten married; then I would not exist! How their choices in their lives; who they married, where they lived and so on, still even generations later, has an effect on the present, like a ripple effect! I was floored by that realization; and was dismayed at the thought that these people, my family, that their lives, who they were, what they went through; that their memory should ever be forgotten or lost! That no matter what humble or noble in origin they were, that they mattered, that they had lived, walked on the same earth, laughed or cried, made hard choices and simple choices, and breathed as I do now.
   I proceeded to get a pencil and a pad of yellow lined paper and asked my Nana and Great Uncle more questions about their parents and their families.
  When a photo of her mother was pointed out by my mother I jotted down that there was a photo of her, and about what age my family thought she was when it was taken. I devoted, at first, two pages per person my Nana and G. Uncle told me about; I ended up using one of my school notebooks to keep everything and write things down.  I began to dissect those family stories for clues, abstracted connections, and began to pester the ever living heck out of my family for info! (Oh, and I STILL do! lol)
I would use my study hall breaks and my free time in the computer room  in school to use the still fairly new internet to try to find info. (It was MUCH harder then let me tell you!) I made phone call after phone call to relatives and pretty much 'interviewed', and pumped them for as much info as they would provide; no small a detail was to be overlooked, for I soon discovered that even the smallest detail can lead one to more information or a place to look. I learned from scratch and from those who had more experience than I after coming upon a few posting forums and email groups.

    In turn, my new found passion for everything familytree related further fuelled my passion for history; I wanted to learn and know what was going on in this world, and area when these people were alive; what decisions did they face in their 'world', what hadn't been invented yet?? And so this also perpetuated my joy of History; instead of getting a video of Mighty Mouse or My Little Mermaid from my town library, I started taking home National Geographic films , magazines and documentaries, WWII history videos, 18th century themed historical dramas, old books about local families and histories of early Massachusetts, documentaries on Ireland, Native American Tribes, doing research online about the 'famine years' and the experience of the Irish here in New England at the time, films on science, nature, ancient Rome and Greece and then some; all before hitting 15 years old!

     Here it is; nearly 2012 and I have been doing this for over half my lifetime...

   Thus began my Journey and ultimately my Passion for family tree research, genealogy, and history. And so it continues, I am sure, until the day I die; by then hopefully someone in my family with be awestruck by the stories and memories and knowledge I may pass on, and thus our 'family memory' won't be forgotten or lost.

And so, in ending my first blog; I invite you:
~Walk with me in my Journies through the Trees~