This picture has been sitting in my email for almost 2 years now. My brother took it with his cell phone the day before my grandfather, who's the goofball in the hat (which is my brother's), passed away from cancer. I figured this would be a good post to finally make use of the picture.

It's almost midnight here and I've been doing some family tree research since about 5. My dad and I are wondering where the Native American in our family comes into our tree, so I got a free trial with ancestry.com. I started with my grandfather and am working my way back, since we know it was on his side. Actually, I started with my grandfather's mother, since the only records I could find on my grandfather are from the SS Death Index and a newspaper clip from 1948 about him entering the military.

This is difficult! I found my grandfather's father, and that's about as far as I got on his paternal side. I might have found his parents, but one record says his mother was born in Maine and father in Denmark, and the closest I could find with names was of both the mother and father born in Denmark. Other than that, the details are pretty close.

I got a bit farther on my grandfather's mother's side, but not much. I found her parents, paternal grandparents, and the birth places of her paternal great grandparents, two with names, and maternal grandparents. I'm having a hard time getting further because I can't find maiden names, and once I get to relatives out of the country, I can't see records anymore because I signed up for the wrong damn ancestry.com trial!

Does anyone know of any other genealogy resource that might be helpful? Preferably one that is free?

Oh, and, mom, if you're up and reading this (it's about 1am your time), call my cell phone (if you see this within the next hour). I need dad's email address to send him this info, and I have interesting info about something I found under your name!