"Enjoy the Journey"

Who are you?

Do you know?

Understanding both the physical and metaphysical journeys of our ancestors not only allows us to reconnect with family previously lost to us, but helps us to better understand ourselves.

Everything about genealogy is a journey. Doesn't matter whether it's the literal tracing of your ancestors' migration pathways or rebuilding their life stories so you can comprehend why they might have made the choices they did. Genealogy is our journey as well; let's face it, much of our time is spent delving into dusty archives as we travel cross-country in our efforts to dislodge a particular ancestor from the mists of time. Sometimes they come willingly, conveniently saluting us from easily locatable records. Other times we need the the FBI and/or a fleet of backhoes to resurrect them. Either way, rediscovering them is an inestimable prize.

Knowing who our ancestors were really helps us fathom who we are. For example, solving the mystery of my birth family gave me a much-needed context for so many of my personality traits and interests. Things make so much more sense now that I understand on a more granular level that I am the product of two disparate families melded together. Their journeys are my journey.  I am the mischievous twinkle of my birth mother's eye while I simultaneously exhibit my mom's mannerisms and the lifelong love of reading with which she imbued me. I may have inherited my birth father's revulsion to alcohol and coffee and his love of words and language, but I am also the embodiment of my dad's humor and goofiness. In discovering them, I have discovered myself.

Kentucky, I am in you.

This week I've had the pleasure both literally and figuratively of traipsing cross-country, from South Jersey to Utah and from New England to the Midwest. Both voyages have brought me closer to distant friends and to even more distant relatives. I am grateful for both pilgrimages.

Every night after I've finished communing with dead people in the Family History Library, the bite of the cold January are riffles through my hair and frosts my breath, making me feel more alive than ever.

The magic of Salt Lake City and the 2019 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.

Thank you, SLIG, for another epic journey.  Safe travels home, everyone.