Entering the Autumn of Life

The first day of spring in 1972 occurred on March 20th…two days later, like the proverbial spring chicken, I came into this world. In the years that followed, while going through grade school, high school, and college, I moved around a lot to various countries and always felt untethered, a nomad without a hometown…without roots. So, I focused on my education, friendships, relationships and on surmounting the obstacles that I encountered while taking advantage of a few opportunities along the way. In my mid-twenties I experienced marriage, fatherhood, divorce, got laid off, and had to declare bankruptcy. By my mid-thirties, I focused on rebuilding every aspect of my life. This personal renaissance lasted approximately ten years…the Summer of my life, you might call it. Now, as I enter my late forties, I acknowledge that I’m no longer a spring chicken, but, rather a battle-scarred rooster content and at peace with myself. Moreover, I have probably lived over half my life already (knocks on wood) and am most likely entering the early autumn of my existence. This realization compelled me to look inward as an individual, backwards towards my heritage and deeper into my roots.

The prevailing under current to The Roots and Leaves project will focus on the synergies between world and social history and all aspects of my genealogy and family history. By iteratively delving into these topics from a global to a family perspective, I hope to create an informative and entertaining representation of the life and times of my ancestors while expanding my genealogical research as well. I appreciate the enormity of the project and endeavor to diligently build on the existing body of family knowledge with the understanding that the project will require planning and a process with regularly scheduled updates.

I will seek to find context and on establishing a record of truth to build upon. Therefore, my approach to the underlying research will focus on the following topics: World History, Family History, Genealogy, and Current Events as they relate to my families areas of interest. I’ll bring a macro focus down to a micro level by touching on all aspects of society and history: Society, Culture, Sports, Education, Politics, War, Events, Disasters, Arts, Science, Technology, Traditions, Economics, Government, Geography…basically any topic I can think of, that will add a dimension to my research. In the end, I want to get a sense for how my ancestors might have lived their daily lives, and to understand the impact that world events of their times might have had on them. To respect the privacy of my living relatives, I will avoid discussing their lives and will concentrate my attention on deceased relatives and ancestors only.

With each post, I will build upon my research and create links from one topic to another, ultimately painting a three-dimensional picture of the life and times of my ancestors. By sharing my project on a website platform, I wish to also attract other family historians and genealogists with an interest in identifying common ancestors within the family pedigrees that I touch upon…I think they call that cousin bait. I realize that I have lofty goals for this project, but each update will serve as a piece to a master puzzle that I hope to one day complete, even if it takes another thirty or forty years.

Finally, I hope this project will eventually bear fruit in the form of a family history book or books for each surname, somewhere down the line and perhaps serve as a resource for future generations in my family tree before the leaves fall off from my branch.