I think all History teachers should teach History on a more personal level. I would have gotten a lot more from history if the teachers would have told me that my grandparents and grandparents were the immigrants that fought weather, hostile forces and little by little settled America. So I could have a better life.

For instance, the people who died at the Alamo were someones children, parents, or siblings. They were everyday people who were a part of History. Or the people who sailed in the Steerage Compartment in a ship with trunks and animals, they were my grandparents. I have a trunk with a name and shipping label that says steerage. Some people were royalty as they are ancestors to Native American Chiefs.

All these people are real people. People that lived an everyday existence, until called upon to do something extraordinary. I am thrilled to find the documentation that are the sources to their lives. Whether my ancestors or yours, they are all our grandparents. I had never given that a thought until I started genealogical research. Now I can tell my grandchildren why their great and great great grandparents were the unsung heroes of America. Now I can put names and faces to the immigrants and soldiers who fought for a chance to live in America. Where the streets were supposed to be paved in gold.

The reasons for coming to America were the same. They wanted to make a better life for themselves, their families and their descendants. In large part, their dreams came true. No matter what they came from, America became the place to be. The place where independence and freedom were treasured and valued above all. Where immigrants could become anything they wanted.

My grandparents and great grandparents are from Canada, Bohemia, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, Holland and many other such places. My ancestors came to America or Wales, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I have had the pleasure of meeting "live" cousins from Canada. I email "live" cousins from Canada and Ireland. I have learned so much. And experienced so much more about my ancestors than I ever would have thought possible.

Genealogy Research has enriched and widened my life. I believe in a small way it has opened window to my grandsons, that when they get older, they will be able to appreciate the diversity in our background. They will be able to see military records, marriages and wills of people who lived in the 1700's and 1800's. I have collected news clippings and funny stories about ancestors that my grandson's will be able to share with their families. One story was about my great grandpa.

I finally found my Great Grandpa Clark. I found wher he had been buried. We went there to take a picture on his grave. when we got there, we were told a story of an unethical cemetery owner who had wanted to put a strip mall on the site of the cemetery. So he had written the family members to remove their loved ones from the cemetery. He said it had been quarantined. The city stepped in and said he could not do that. But not before my great grandpa had been moved to another cemetery. It just so happened that he was buried in the cemetery that his son, my grandpa would someday be buried. Since great grandpa had died so yourng, he had never know his son. Now they spend eternity together in the same cemetery. Now that is what I consider living history. Something I never fully realized was there for the taking until I started researching where I came from.