What was the one thing that started your genealogy quest? For me, it was to determine the relationship between my paternal grandparents. They always said they were 5th or 6th cousins.
How did this play out? Let me tell you the story.
Being a newbie genealogist, I had no idea where to start my search. I had some names and dates for both sides of my grandparents, but it wasn’t enough.
I set out to visit the Medina County Public Library in Medina, Ohio. This was about 25 years ago before the remodeling of the library was done. The genealogy room was a rather small room with locked doors and you had to ask to be let in the room. I walked into the room and had no idea where to start looking.
This was before smartphones and built-in cameras. I had a notebook with me to take notes. I found some booklets of old newspaper clippings from the Medina Gazette. I found family surnames in the clippings.
While I was working on this, another lady came into the room, went straight to the microfilm drawers, pulled out a roll of microfilm, and proceeded to load the microfilm on the machine. I thought to myself – this lady knows what she is doing!
We sat in silence for awhile when she asked me about who I was researching. I told her the surnames of Lance and Halliwell/Halliwill. She responded that there were a lot of those names around the area!
As we chatted further, she gave me the names of some people in the area to contact that may help me in my search. I thanked her profusely. She gave me her business card. She was the author of the booklets of the newspaper clippings! Nice way to start off.
After I got home, I started calling the contacts she had given me. Each one said, “But, you need to talk to the lady in Michigan!” I got the number of the lady in Michigan and called her. I told her who I was looking for and she said she knew exactly who that was. She asked for a few minutes to find her family history book and she would call me back. And, she did! I knew back to my grandfather’s grandparents with a bit of uncertainty. She got me back to my 4th great-grandparents in mere minutes. I was ecstatic! Could it really be this easy?
She went on to say that her husband was descended from the same line that I was. She would copy the pages of the book that pertained to my family lines and send them to me.
The information came from a book that had been put together many years ago in a rather confusing way. This book covered both grandparents’ lines.
I then found out there was a Lance Reunion to be held in Wooster. I made arrangements to go with all of my family. Another cousin was the son of the man who had written the book. He had taken all that information and put it into a database. He gave me a copy – on a floppy disc – with over 7,000 names on it. Oh, how fun.
As I went through all of this information, the answer to my original question about the relationship of my paternal grandparents became quite clear – they were full 3rd cousins!
There is so much more to my genealogical adventures but that requires even more stories.
It is never too late to start your journey to find your ancestors. If you have not started – now is the time.
Margaret Lance Cheney
Margaret has been doing genealogy for over 25 years. Her genealogical adventures have taken her many places. She has been president of the Lorain County Chapter and the Medina County Genealogical Society. She has been president of the Ohio Genealogical Society and has held many other positions within OGS. She has been a lineage chair for all organizations and was chair of First Families of Ohio for over 12 years. Her journey continues as she finds new ancestors.
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