It was about in 1981 when I started putting up our family tree. Thanks to the help of my mother and other relatives who were still around at that time that I was able to get some important information. And I was able to go up to the 4th generation both on my father and mother side.
When I came to France, my husband and I tried to do his family side and for some reasons, we stopped and we never bothered continuing again. But I tried to keep all the records I have got including the ones I got from the church records and from the local cemetery in my hometown.
Until one day, in Facebook, I happened to ask in our family branch group if anyone has ever done any of our genealogy. And luckily, some of the members of the Andrada clan have started doing it a long time ago. And told me that a family tree has been created in one of the genealogy websites. That was a big surprise and was overwhelming seeing the names of my ascendants and their relations to one another. That was really amazing.
This has triggered and encouraged me to open my files once again and add more info that I possess on our family side and was able to accomplish important task.
Now, I am back to my genealogy work.
My cousins,aunts, nephews and nieces have started sending the family form which I sent them to be filled up and I am slowly progressing and filling up each family's information. I am so excited and very happy about this.
Why I am doing this? First of all because I would like that my children will get to know where their origins are. Being born in a foreign country, with a foreign dad, it is just important to keep records of the family and to know who their relatives are in the Philippines and also in other parts of the world as many family members have moved away and migrated worldwide.
I would like to thank the Andrada-Judan family especially uncle Philip and uncle Oscar who have helped me and in allowing me to add some info on our family side. And also in creating my own family tree. I am really so grateful and I can finally do the work seriously and make entries as clearly as possible.
I have entered more than 320 names at this point and I guess, I am not even half of it on my father's side. But I have those files coming in slowly. And when I become comfortable in it, I will start putting some pictures to be more attractive and much easier to know their faces and remember them.
My late grand aunt Lola Cion, my grandfather's sister gave me such a big treasure. She prepared a list of the family members and that contributed to the many entries I have made.
On my mother side, I have not started in the web yet and that will soon follow.
I plan of going to Mindanao when I go home by the end of the year to meet up with my relatives on my mother's side, her half-siblings to whom I have only once met when I was a child and to meet also my cousins that I have never seen in my whole life. I will take advantage in taking notes and info so I could create our family tree on my mother's side as well. I am so excited and looking forward for this opportunity and I don't want to miss this one this time.
I have never felt so happy while doing this. I don't know but I just feel close to see those names appearing on my list. As I type their names, dead or alive, I imagine their faces, ages and what have they become especially those that I have no pictures to see.
Once again, I regret that I did not take notes when I had those opportunities to talk and ask those records about the family when my mom and my grandparents when they were still around. I have heard some anecdotes. I would like to write them one of these days. But I will do that one at a time.
In the meantime, I will content myself filling those blanks, searching for those ancestors who have played a major part. That without them, we will never exist today.
I am so lucky that I live not far from the genealogy center here in Papeete where I can obtain information from some parts of the world. And of course, internet is such a big "pot of treasure" where we can acquire important names, notes and events as well.
This is time consuming I must admit. But I finally found this as more important than Facebooking! Of course, I can't set aside FB. Because thru this social network, I was able to find my treasure.....family, relatives and friends that I have never seen nor heard for ages who are all over the world. And they are all around me and could get in touch with just a mouse click away. And this is absolutely fantastic. Technology is good. Life is good. Genealogy is good too.
When I came to France, my husband and I tried to do his family side and for some reasons, we stopped and we never bothered continuing again. But I tried to keep all the records I have got including the ones I got from the church records and from the local cemetery in my hometown.
Until one day, in Facebook, I happened to ask in our family branch group if anyone has ever done any of our genealogy. And luckily, some of the members of the Andrada clan have started doing it a long time ago. And told me that a family tree has been created in one of the genealogy websites. That was a big surprise and was overwhelming seeing the names of my ascendants and their relations to one another. That was really amazing.
This has triggered and encouraged me to open my files once again and add more info that I possess on our family side and was able to accomplish important task.
Now, I am back to my genealogy work.
My cousins,aunts, nephews and nieces have started sending the family form which I sent them to be filled up and I am slowly progressing and filling up each family's information. I am so excited and very happy about this.
I would like to thank the Andrada-Judan family especially uncle Philip and uncle Oscar who have helped me and in allowing me to add some info on our family side. And also in creating my own family tree. I am really so grateful and I can finally do the work seriously and make entries as clearly as possible.
I have entered more than 320 names at this point and I guess, I am not even half of it on my father's side. But I have those files coming in slowly. And when I become comfortable in it, I will start putting some pictures to be more attractive and much easier to know their faces and remember them.
My late grand aunt Lola Cion, my grandfather's sister gave me such a big treasure. She prepared a list of the family members and that contributed to the many entries I have made.
On my mother side, I have not started in the web yet and that will soon follow.
I plan of going to Mindanao when I go home by the end of the year to meet up with my relatives on my mother's side, her half-siblings to whom I have only once met when I was a child and to meet also my cousins that I have never seen in my whole life. I will take advantage in taking notes and info so I could create our family tree on my mother's side as well. I am so excited and looking forward for this opportunity and I don't want to miss this one this time.
I have never felt so happy while doing this. I don't know but I just feel close to see those names appearing on my list. As I type their names, dead or alive, I imagine their faces, ages and what have they become especially those that I have no pictures to see.
Once again, I regret that I did not take notes when I had those opportunities to talk and ask those records about the family when my mom and my grandparents when they were still around. I have heard some anecdotes. I would like to write them one of these days. But I will do that one at a time.
In the meantime, I will content myself filling those blanks, searching for those ancestors who have played a major part. That without them, we will never exist today.
I am so lucky that I live not far from the genealogy center here in Papeete where I can obtain information from some parts of the world. And of course, internet is such a big "pot of treasure" where we can acquire important names, notes and events as well.
This is time consuming I must admit. But I finally found this as more important than Facebooking! Of course, I can't set aside FB. Because thru this social network, I was able to find my treasure.....family, relatives and friends that I have never seen nor heard for ages who are all over the world. And they are all around me and could get in touch with just a mouse click away. And this is absolutely fantastic. Technology is good. Life is good. Genealogy is good too.
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