After reading a TNR article on America’s obsession w/ genealogy, I’ve become obsessed w/ genealogy. I remember as a kid looking at a small family tree my tío Jorge had drawn. But I don’t remember much, other than the fact that there was a “Pio” in it somewhere (I think my great grandfather). So I recently set up a free account on Ancestry.com. And it’s been a fascinating way to procrastinate.
Most of the information I currently have comes from my mom’s side of the family. Since the website uses public records (but primarily in the US & Britain), it makes searching for the Bolivian side of my family a bit more difficult (until my dad gets around to emailing me some much-needed info).
There’s also a lot of dead ends, of course. Basically, it seems that I need to provide as much information as I can for about four generations up (my great grandparents). But. If I have that information (full names at least), the software does the rest. I don’t have the pay service, but even w/ just the free public access stuff, I’m finding lots of crazy information.
The one line of family tree I can easily trace so far is my grandmothers’ (in part because she wrote a family history for us about ten years ago called “I’m a Clayton”). And we’ve always joked that that part of the family tree come from the hills of Kentucky. Well, they do. But they also come from the first settlers in Virginia & Massachusetts. Nobody famous (as far as I can tell). But there’s Richard Hardy (1577-1645), who was born in Yorkshire, England, and died in Isle Wight, Virginia. And Nicholas Wallingford (1629-1682), who was born in Hampshire, England, and died in Bradford, Massachusetts. Plus some crazy names, like Hepzibah Wallingford, daughter of Deborah Hazeltine (both of Massachusetts Bay Colony).
Of course, who knows how accurate this is. But it is remarkably fascinating.
Pio was your great grandfather on your dad's side. He was abuelita's father, a railroad worker and then a customs agent, I believe. From what Abuelita told me a rather harsh man who didn't want his daughters to waste time going to school. He wife was named Placida, but I never got to meet her. I do have a picture of Pio somewhere in my 'box'.