This post marks the first official entry in my genealogy journal. While the site is currently under “lock and key,” I am using this space to document the goals, technical setup, and status updates for this family history project.

The idea for this project came in the summer of 2025, while talking with Shelly about her genealogy project. Shelly is working on creating a book with the family history of her maternal grandparents, and I would like to do the same for my paternal side. There will be a book in the works as well, but I wanted to work on the website first. It was just an idea for a long time, but the passing of my grandmother, Sue, really helped kick start my motivation.

The Goals: From Facts to Stories

My immediate goal is to fill in gaps in my knowledge-base, and transform the list of facts I have for each individual to a story of their life.

• Professional Research: Use standardized and accepted genealogical research standards for finding information and filling in missing data.
• Preserving the Narrative: Finding government records and newspaper clippings is the easy part. But everyone is special, from their hobbies to their personality. I want to make sure each person is as accurately represented as possible.
• Collect personal recounts: Word of mouth history is the backbone of our culture, but it’s not very accessible, and can often be lost. In the long term, I would like to preserve these stories, but need to find a solution for privatizing and allowing others to post.

Current Focus

For now, my work remains “behind the scenes.” I am standardizing the look of each ancestor page and ensuring the tree remains private while I verify the details. This is the beginning of a long-term project, built one block at a time.

Where We Stand Today

The basics of the site are now technically ready to go, but there is still “scaffolding” in place for the moment. I have not purchased the domain yet, but I have it picked out. The next step will be a hosting provider, and a “under construction” page as a placeholder. Beautifying the pages, finalizing the technology stack, and privatizing sensitive data are all on the to-do list.

Now, if only I could remember where I put that to-do list…