Sharing My Story

Genealogy Interest

My interest in genealogy was advanced by the computer
technology that became part of my work place environment
in the late 1980s. I first started for my researching numerous
lines of my genealogy. It wasn't just Dad's "Ensigns" or Mom's
"Holdens" but also the Baileys, DeLapps, Coes, Hubbards,
Pratts, Hawleys, Lawrences, Farnworths, Morse, Strongs,
Dickinsons, Wilcoxs, Bentons, Shepards, Gunns, Wadsworths,
Lovelands, Websters, Chittendens, Hopkins, Judds, and many
others. I became a member of of the New England Historic
Genealogical Society for several years and became involved
in their book lending library and visited their headquarters
and library in Boston in 1989.

I also joined the Los Angeles British Isles Family History Society
which met in the Family History Library on Santa Monica Blvd
(Los Angeles). Over the years I attended a number of their meetings.
I attended a number of genealogical conferences held in the
Southern California area. I did this in order to educate myself
on proper genealogical research techniques. My early research
was mostly from secondary sources (printed genealogies, local
histories and so forth). As I progressed in my research I did more
basic research into census records, land and court records and
other primary sources. New genealogists are always cautioned
about the information contains in printed family histories—
much of it may not be factual. Searching the various branches of
your family tree is a fascinating and never ending endeavor. It can
be very compulsive because there is always a gnawing curiosity to
find out what those in previous generations were like. What did
they think, believe and feel about life? So little of that type of
information is handed down from one generation to the next.
In some ways on a personal level each generation starts almost
from scratch.

I made a trip (as previously mentioned) to New England in the
summer of 1989 and toured through Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate
New York. I visited Hartford where my immigrant ancestor
James Ensign was one of the original settlers. Also visited
various places in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont
and New York where various of my ancestors lived (on both
sides) in the 1700s and 1800s. I also stopped and visited
Bellingham, MA and let them know I was from the other
Bellingham on the Pacific coast. In the summer of 1991
I flew to Illinois and traveled through Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, Kentucky and flew out of Illinois again.
This trip combined genealogy research and meeting
many of my Alpha-Omega Christian comics friends.
Visiting court houses, libraries and cemetery walking
were all a part of these trips. The reason I made a
concerted effort in my early forties is that I wanted to
do this type of traveling and research while I still had
the energy and stamina to do it. Rather that waiting
for retirement I programmed it in my schedule while
I was still young enough to do it.