It started innocently enough. I was merely playing a game of Scrabble with
my sister on Facebook which is quite frustrating since the program is as slow
as molasses in January. On this
particular morning I just happened to glance at an ad on the side column but it
caught my attention because it was an old, nostalgic looking photo and the text
was in Danish. Hmmm? This is curious so I read it. That was a slippery slope my friends.
It was an ad for MyHeritage which is a
competitor of Ancestry.com but it is so much better. When I have entered my name in Ancestry I get
zero hits but with MyHeritage I was instantly landed on a relative’s site. It was exciting since it confirmed a huge
chunk of documentation that I had received from my mother’s cousin some decades
before. From there I was lost.
Only, it gets a little worse. After being on the computer for about an hour
I heard the telephone ring in the other room and I thought I heard the words “My
Heritage” so I dashed to pick up the phone.
Some fifteen minutes later I had bought the complete package (don’t
ask). I spent the rest of the day going
through scads of names, getting match after match until I thought I would
scream Bingo and run for my winnings. It
was crazy. I don’t think I have ever
been so wildly addicted to something.
All I can say is thank heavens I was not actually gambling.
So if you are at all into geneology I do
recommend this site, particularly for those who have a more diverse ancestry
than typical Anglo Saxon. The agent on
the telephone told me that they have access to almost all the European
databases and over 80 million family trees so the diversity appears to be much
higher than what I experienced an Ancestry.
It was thrilling to discover names of my
great, great grandparents on my father’s side of the family and to confirm some
of the “legends” told in our early morning breakfast chats. And can you believe this, my great, great
grandfather’s name was Hans Christian Andersen K. How appropriate is that?
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