It's no secret to anyone that I've been working on my own family tree since the age of seven years old. In the going on twenty-two years since the year 2000 (when I was 7), I've worked tirelessly on my own family history and not just trying to fill out branches but also preserve the branches and priceless information.
A few years back, I put together a Mefford/Bastin family binder. I had the thought of doing a binder for each of my Grandparents - so Mefford/Bastin, Jones/White, Blanford/Nally, Sandefur/Thompson... but... I have too much information. Even now, about three years after putting the Mefford/Bastin binder together - I've now disproved some of my information (through DNA testing and whatnot) so the job is never finished. My binders will never be 'perfect.'
I house my tree currently on Ancestry and I pay for a monthly subscription (World Explorer.) I also use Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com. It's very rare that I utilize FamilySearch or any other archival website. I do utilize our local library's obituary collection and Browning in Evansville.
Of course, I have my DNA on every website (or just about every website). Ancestry, 23andme, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, GEDMatch, LivingDNA, etc. I've got both of my parents on Ancestry and my Dad's tested at 23andme (still trying to get Mom to spit in her kit I bought, ugh.)
My paid work has really slowed down the work I do on my own tree. In a way, that breaks my heart... sometimes genealogy starts to feel so much like a job, and not a job that I love and enjoy, that I have to step away and work on my own stuff or else I burn completely out and can't do a lick of genealogy at all.
I'd say my best way of 'preservation' has been extensively researching each and every small cemetery in Henderson County - of course my most in-depth work has been on the Gibson cemeteries in Corydon, KY. Find-a-Grave has really helped me to preserve that information for generations that will come after me.
My genealogy blog is another great way to help preserve my family history and my families legacy. I get behind in these writing prompts/challenges but, going at my own pace... it really gives me time to think out exactly what I want to write about for that particular prompt. Sometimes I write about the same thing for a second, or even a third time... but I always go more and more in-depth with new details I've found each time.
I've been trying to get all of my old photographs digitized onto the laptop or my iPhone. I love playing with my old black and white photographs on Remini or MyHeritage. I've had a lot of success with them, to be honest, and couldn't be happier with the results. I've even started sharing some of my photographs to Instagram and TikTok to build a bit of a 'fanbase' for my genealogy, if you will.
It is my hope that someday I will have a family history book in our local library talking about all the Henderson families of today and their roots to the original settlers. So many of my friends have roots going back in this county to within ten years of its inception but they have no idea. It always hurts me to know that someone doesn't know where or who they came from.
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