Thursday, August 8, 2013

Thoughts after a lengthy break

Hello blog. It has been a while since I have updated you. My life has been filled with lots of changes over the last few months and I am ready to get back into genealogy.

The other day I was searching around on Etsy for a birthday gift and, as I often do, I plopped 'genealogy' into the search box. I not only found a perfect gift (for someone who threw away the family genealogy research, no less! gasp!) but found a bunch of neat templates to display a family tree. I want to get artsy and create my own and I found some great ideas.

As far as research I haven't been doing much. I let my Ancestry membership lapse while I was moving and getting settled into my new job. I plan to renew it soon, but not quite yet. I have been enjoying the updates from my DNA test with 23andMe. I have recently learned about what the ratio between the length of my index and ring fingers means, an updated report about my risk for Alzheimer's Disease, and my odds of developing narcolepsy.

I'm still hoping a male relative will take the DNA test so I can have record of the Y-lineage, but we shall see.

Since I started researching I have debated about the pros and cons of keeping digital vs. physical records of my research. Right now almost everything I have accomplished is in digital form. While this is more earth friendly and takes up less space, I do sometimes wish I had something tangible too. I made a Shutterfly photobook of old photos of my grandparents and it turned out wonderfully. I'm contemplating making more.

Decisions! Decisions!