My Generations Project

(The pic above is a class pic of my ggggrandfather's brother. I love these old pics, they definitely bring history to life!!)

Okay, it is official, I am starting my blog as of today!! I am really super excited and hope you are able to enjoy my posts! I labeled this post geneology, which I will discuss in a minute, but truly one of the ways I see blogging being so awesome is that it really is a form of a personal history. I am one who would love to keep a journal, but really strongly dislikes the process of writing.


On the Fourth of July, while waiting to watch the towns fireworks from our roof, I happened upon a program on the BYU channel, The Generations Project. I was instantly hooked and completely knew what I wanted to do for my generations project. I highly encourage you to visit their website and watch the episode on what a generations project is and then pick any one of the episodes they have. You can't go wrong with any of them they are all really touching and inspirational!! In a nutshell, their are 4 parts to a generation project. Instead of just researching countless names and dates it is a way of really connecting with your ancestors in a way now that makes a difference in your life NOW! Part 1: Have a purpose for your project. Maybe you want to answer a question about yourself that you can find the answer from the past.
Part 2: Populate your tree with ancestors. Part 3: Mix it with history, personal and social Part 4: Share it and watch it ripple!!

Part 1: My Why? I have never had a solid fatherly figure in my life that I feel like I can run to in times of need and know that I will be comforted and safe. My own father was there physically but never emotionally and in fact he left when I was 13 when my parents divorced. I never knew either of my grandfathers, in fact neither did my parents since they were both very young (my mom was 9 and my dad was 11) when their fathers both passed away. I also know throughout my family tree there were many men who up and left their families, usually leaving behind a wife and many children to struggle through day to day life the best they could or they died young, once again leaving a family behind to struggle. I want to research and find men of substance, men who did stand by their families and was not only a great father but husband. Unfortunately, this lack of a father in my life has transfered to my spiritual life and I have a VERY distant relationship with my own Heavenly Father. I know he loves me, but I do not feel any kind of connection. I have a terrific one with Jesus Christ, my brother, as I have always had with male friends, but I know that me finding a real relationship with my Father in Heaven will not only comfort me but will bring me great peace. I have no idea how long this will take or how large my generations project will be. The most important part is that I am willing to take a leap of faith and know that there were good men in my ancestory! I just need to let the Holy Ghost lead me and I will follow.

Part 2: I have previously done quite a bit of geneology, in fact quite a bit of work has been done since I submitted information on one line of my family. When my paternal grandmother passed and I was at her house I happened upon (I am a firm believer that there are NO COINCIDENCES in life. EVERYTHING happens for a purpose! Many times its the Holy Ghost pointing something out to us!) a huge book of geneology just laying on the floor. I asked my dad if I could have it and he agreed. It is a complete gold mine. It is my McBrayer line that goes all the way back to the early 1600's when 3 brothers embarked on a journey to America. In fact I have been super blessed to have a bunch of geneologists in my family that have done a lot of the leg work for me. The last time I had submitted names to the temple it was about 4 years ago and things have changes so much. The church's new family search is improved along with all the websites you can join that contain an unbelievable amount of information. I have chosen to join Ancestory.com, which is about $300 a year, but well worth it!! I have already found out so much great stuff!!

So wish me luck on this journey and I hope you enjoy reading about it!!