Origins and destinations

I am, in my rare spare time, an amateur genealogist. I have spent countless hours over the past 16 years wandering through cemeteries with crayons and butcher paper to make tombstone rubbings, poring over old books and microfilms, digging through census records, and corresponding with distant cousins in places as far away as Almora and Pithoragarh, India. So I was not going to miss NBC's series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" Profiling various celebrities as they explore tiny branches of their family trees, the show is predictable and repetitive, but still fascinating. As Jeff and I watched the other day, I commented that the show lacked emotional depth for everyone EXCEPT for the profiled celebrity. Yet I understand that wholly personal emotional feeling, when a word in a census ("seamstress") fills in a blank and makes you feel connected to a person whose name you once didn't even know, but whose DNA you carry.

And it was with sadness that I read this afternoon about the death of Farwell T. Brown, the 99-year-old keeper of our town's history. Brown was the founder of the Ames Historical Society and was named the city's official historian in 1986. His photographic archive, searchable by location and name, is a gem for any genealogist with interest in the Ames, Iowa, area.

If you (like me) have immigrant ancestors and want to spend a bit of time this holiday weekend digging into their paths to the United States, you might check out Ancestry.com's "free access weekend" for all of their online immigration records (from now through September 6). Have fun!