Family Tree Grows into a Forest of Families

When my grandmother fell ill and eventually passed a little over a year ago, at the incredible age of 98, I regretted not having asked to her to tell her story in her own words. I wish that I had done that and asked about others in our family and taken the opportunity to document the history of our family from someone who not only knew it personally but lived for nearly a century of it. She was born into a privileged family with an interesting and long history and lived her life with as much enthusiasm as those that came before her. She was a great woman who I not only loved but admired for all that she did not only for me but for all those she came in contact with. She truly was a bright light in the lives of many people. She has left a legacy for us all to maintain and to enhance with our own story.

I can recall many a story about all the different relatives whom she spoke fondly off but never had I asked about how they all fit together. While some relationships were obvious others were not and to honor my grandmother I decided that I would research as much as I could about my family and all the families whose trees intersect with ours and put this amazing puzzle together.

It was a long process to validate and verify each person and as I got deeper and deeper I discovered more then I ever thought I would. I learned that some of the stories told were myth and other amazing things had gone untold. Rather then create a traditional tree I opted instead to create a forest of families all intertwined by marriage. It resulted in a large complex non-traditional group of trees.

I traced my family on my father's side back to 1570 starting with Esther Stedman and Jehu Burr and along the way discovered many interesting individuals such as Aaron Burr, Former Vice President of the United States, Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield School of Law, as well as such notable families such as the Lockwood, Burr, Jenning, Wakemans, Jessup, Olmstead, Smith and Baker families from whom my Grandmother was born into.

On My mother's side I was able to trace the family back to 1738 in Canada. Our French Canadian heritage was again something I knew but had limited knowledge of. What I found most interesting on my mother's side was how the family names were truncated and simplified many times until what we are left with today.

In addition to just building my tree I have collected information about as many of those found in the tree as I could and captured as much of that information in a journal. It is my hope and goal for my research to be a guide to those that follow about our family and what makes us who we are today.

While I have exhausted my patience at the moment I am sure I will return to the tree once more and dig deeper on both sides. History is an amazing thing and knowing who and where you came from in an invaluable resource.  I will certainly not abandon this project and I will ensure that generations to come after me have the information I have collected.