The older I am getting the more that I wonder about who my ancestors were and where I came from. In a comparatively culture free America, I questioned if there are traditions Albert that I identify with the deep down. Like many US people my ancestors came from all over the world.

For all desires and purposes I regard myself as a EU mutt.

Even my last name is made up of 2 different languages. In all this movement and mixing I have to wonder who I actually am. Thanks to all of their work I'll look back over many generations to see where my folks came from and how they came to be in America. If you go back far enough you can even find a US President in my folks tree. If you need to understand more about your ancestors, building a family tree is a way to get those answers. Birth, death, and wedding records are an excellent place to start. You will even think about trying one of many sites out there that will help you build a family tree.

They also contain a never-ending quantity of records that you can pour thru to determine if your ancestors are included. You can even find a detailed family tree out there with your name on it. Knowing who you are and where you came from can be an amazing present. Many folks don't know who their ancestors are and are unable to put together a total ancestral history for themselves. Understanding how your folks came to be in this country and where their ancestors lived before can open up a totally new world for you. We reside in a superb age of technology in which so much info is widely available for our use.

Hopefully we will be able to all use it to gain a better sense of who we actually are and why.