Jackpot

I had been pondering a subscription to ancestry.com to search out my relatives. They play a ton of commercials for them here (as I hear they do in the States) and it started to wear me down. I was just... suspicious of them, because they give you two weeks, and then it's so many dollars a month -- but they don't tell you that they charge you for a whole year when the two weeks is up unless you look at the fine print. Also, while you sign up online, you can only cancel over the phone, which is never a good sign.

I mentioned this all to a coworker, and he suggested checking out the library - he had heard that a lot of them had free access to ancestry.com. So I looked into it a little, and found that the State Library of Victoria here in the middle of Melbourne offered it. So I went to check it out today, and wow! They have a big beautiful room dedicated to genealogy, with lots of computer terminals, shelves and shelves of books, and a helpful staff of actual genealogists.

I only had a short time to do it today, so I availed myself of the ancestry.com access, and took some "screen shots" (literally, camera-phone pictures of the screen). Found this World War 2 draft registration card from my second great uncle, as well as this 1930 Census record showing my then-12-year-old grandmother and her family. (I found a 1920 record as well that I forgot to take a picture of that had most of the same people.)

I can't wait to go back. Clearly this is my obsession at the moment; I don't know why. I'm just fascinated by history, and researching my ancestry is just a good excuse. Like the commercial says, it's like being a detective. I will note that I'm doing this all with two main rules:

• No pride (or shame) at anything I find. My ancestors were all individuals who made their own choices through life and there's no reason I should take any credit for their successes any more than I should feel ashamed at their failings.
• No bias towards the patrilineal paths. The women in my family tree contributed just as much to my genetic makeup as the men, and I'm sure worked just as hard if not harder for their families.