Currently staring out at the white winter madness that is the blizzard raging in the backyard of my childhood home. This type of weather can make you feel equal parts mad and cozy.
For me, I’m teetering on the brink of typing “All work and no play make Tony a dull boy” for a thousand pages before running into the swirling blizzard and freezing to death in a topiary maze.
I’m here in Iowa after a family trip to visit the little brother in Denver, Colorado which — for all its snow-capped mountains and Overlook Hotels — gave us GORGEOUS weather the whole time we were there. Go figure.
In between the delicious craft brews and the pain of marathon training in high altitudes, I decided to check on my Ancestry.com messages and discovered I had one from Clifton. He had recently taken an AncestryDNA test and he matched well with my mom on their as well.
He messaged me sending me a link to his Facebook as well as a very nice message saying that my mom is definitely her niece.
AWESOME. I friended him immediately — which led to a surprising discover:
He lived in a city near my brother.
So I frantically messaged him back asking if we could meet. As these things go though, I ended up waiting and waiting and waiting until the last day we were there. Clifton messaged back saying yes, indeed he was nearby BUT couldn’t meet up.
Get this: His daughter was having a kid! The Brown family’s getting bigger and my mom’s getting a new cousin. Just more family to meet the next time we’re in Denver.
Silver linings, people. They’re very important.
Which brings us to me genealogy tip for today: Check your messages your damn messages.
If I had checked my messages in Ancestry.com sooner, I would have been able to message Clifton back before I went on my trip. I might have even been able to work out a meet up with him instead of spending a few days … well, NOT meeting my mom’s uncle.
You can set it up so you receive these messages on your email, or just make a note on your Google Cal to check your messages every few days. This can be especially helpful for those of you with more time-sensitive genealogy goals.
This week in S2S (That’s Saigon to Sioux City)
I’m going to try this new thing where every weekend I recap the week and give you a peek on something I’m working on in the future.
Also, the new publishing schedule will be one post every Wednesday. Going to try the whole “consistency” thing out for a change.
This week we got a look at my 5 steps to start for a beginner genealogy. I gave a solid 2000+ word breakdown on exactly how a beginner can get started on their own genealogy journey. It’s actionable. It’s comprehensive. It’s EVERYTHING you need it to be and more. Be sure to check it out.
Next week, I’ll be working on another piece on sourcing and its importance in having a non-crappy af family tree. This came from the suggestion of a very helpful redditor who gave me some great feedback on the above post on /r/genealogy. I never even considered sourcing to be a thing people struggle with. Expect it on Wednesday.
Also I threw this onto reddit but I’ll ask you all now: What subjects do you want me to cover? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or shoot me an email at tony@saigontosiouxcity.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
You have a way with words.