Family Connections Experiment - Day One

 

With all that the world is dealing with during this pandemic, the opportunity to hold the RootsTech conference virtually has opened up this amazing experience to over a million participants during the actual event and countless more as the presentations and resources continue to be available for the next 11 months. 

I binge watched most of the keynotes and visited many of the exhibit hall virtual booths during the three days of the conference.  I made sure to watch both the leadership presentation for Temple and Family History consultants and the Discovery Day presentation with Elder Holland and his family. I also joined in with the viral trend of posting the animated images of ancestors that I created using the My Heritage Deep Nostalgia tool. Here is an example with a picture of Mary Ann Wateridge (1825 - 1886) 1st wife of Joseph Henry Puzey. 

I was also able to catch a few sessions, knowing I will have time to continue to view these videos over the next few weeks and months. 

The Family Connections Experiment is something I have been following on social media for some time but I have never properly joined the 21 day challenge.  After learning more about them at the conference, I joined this month's challenge - the Genealogy Bootcamp.  I like that you can customize the daily plans if something isn't a fit for you. So I might do a mix of the Tech plans as well.  

Today is Day One and the task is to identify a family story to investigate. 

“Every family has a story that it tells itself, that it passes on to the children and grandchildren. The story grows over the years, mutates, some parts dropped, and there is often debate about what really happened.” – A. M. Homes

The easiest time period for finding records or evidence to confirm family stories would be within the range of 1880s to 1940s.  I have already done some digging on our early family stories. I have found records that correct the birthdate recorded on the gravestone for my Great Great Grandfather Herbert Rhodes.  I have investigated timelines for when the different lines of the family ended up in Alberta. I've even gone back earlier to identify the different ancestors on my maternal line who made the trek across the United States to settle in Utah during the time of migration in the mid 19th century.  So choosing a family story to research isn't an easy choice. 

Joseph Henry Puzey (1828-1896)

I have been working on the Puzey line -  filling in the story of Joseph Henry Puzey and learning about his time in England, his parents and his siblings, how he left his childhood home and then his married home to make that journey out to the Utah Valley. I have some of the pieces but I have never put them together in one place to see what is missing and then shared it with the rest of the family.  I've been fascinated to share more after coming across a newspaper article that outlined his death which I wrote about in an earlier blog post.  

So for 21 days, this will be part of what I take on with the goal of having a fuller story to tell at the end. Many of the pieces are already known and just need to be gathered and the goal is  to confirm these with original sources. 

If you know of a family story on the Rhodes, Roots, Puzey or Toone line that might be worth researching and confirming, please let me know!