Welcome

   If you are not sure where the picture is from, it is classical midwest farm country.  I grow up in Iowa.  I am from the city, but if you drive very far you will came to these roads. The roads are similar in every country I have been in.  They all start in the community and travel outward to more communities and families.  I found this similarity looking through my family history. All my ancestors lived in communities with their family.  Eventually their family member left taking those long roads to different community to start their family.  So many great adventures.  I would not change my upbringing in the mid west for anything.  Although I moved away and my kids also have moved away, when we get together there is still nothing better than the feeling of being with family.  When families are together there is always storytelling.   It is such a joy.

  As we have all aged, I have begun to notice how our interest in the history of our family has begun to change.  When we were young, it was about who is related to who. Only down to about our third cousin, unfortunately this was the limit of interest.  During this time it was fun to look at pictures of the relatives. Often saying “what are they wearing?”.   When we get into our late teens and twenties we enjoy more of the picture of our youth, family trips, pet, friends.  The family history becomes more interesting as we were looking for those skeletons in the closet.  Like, “did that aunt marry their first cousin?”.   As I have aged, the more I start to wonder what will happen to all the material related to our history. Our grandparents keep their history in the family bible.  My parents keep their history in boxes and boxes of pictures. My generation has digital pictures and DVD videos.  My kids look at all this stuff and scratch their head.  They are not sure what to do with it.  It is very clear to me that preserving the past is important.  What we feel about our history mean differently to each of us as individuals, its valve is very different at different times in our life span also.  

Several years ago while visiting with my folks I realized that the art of storytelling is fading.  I decided at that time I needed to find a way to take my family history to a platform that would allow family and relatives to enjoy story telling, videos, books, pictures and more.  Showing our history on a platform that could utilize different media types in one area that was easy to view.  I had asked for family and relatives. for their input.  Trying to understand generational needs was not easy.  As a result of my interest in preserving history and everyone’s input, this is how this website was developed.  This is just the starting point.  As we move forward the site will grow and take different shapes.  I truly hope you enjoy it