User:Margmarieh

My experience as a Family History Researcher: I began when I was about twelve years old! I had always known that my "Dad" was my adoptive father, for as long as I could understand and reason; it was not a secret. My dad was open about the concept that I had another father, first, (my biological dad, though we didn't use that terminology so much back in the days...). When I was about twelve, my dad, who reared me, suggested I might write my father's family. My grandmother had been sending cards at Christmas for a couple of years, I believe. I was interested in getting to know more about her and my father's family. I was interested in genealogy and wanted to use the pedigree and family group charts to sort out my "other" relatives.

Now, I wish I could say that I stayed with the genealogical pursuit from that age on without interruption. Instead, I often put it aside for the birth of babies, part-time jobs, homemaking, music, church, etc. I have been married three times, (third one is the charm), but their has been an interest and some effort all along that has been a constant thread in the quilt of my life: Family History. Identifying who they are so that I would know who I was. "They" being my maternal relatives, my bio paternal line, and my adoptive paternal kin. I had been converted at a young age to genealogy and as a convert is apt to do, I wanted to share my message with others. I began to work in the Family History Center (fka the Genealogy Library), perhaps fifteen years ago. When I would go to visit my daughter and her family in Mesa (she is in another part of Arizona, now), I would visit the Mesa Family History Center. I would take side trips to cemeteries on family trips. Archives and libraries called my name and were like sirens driving me to distraction, only it was more like a main attraction to me.

I have served twice as President of the local genealogical society, and other times as a board member. I have taught classes, done presentations, written articles, and volunteered in a local Elderhostel program to teach genealogy. I am currently a Family History Center Director (since November 2005). In my "over the hill" years, life has interrupted, again, and I have been "plagued", recently, by my own and my family's health issues. Despite this, the Family History Center continues to function with the help of dedicated staff and consultants. My primary calling right now is CAREGIVER for my husband. Each and every day there are a multitude of tasks I perform on his behalf; I see my time and energy are scarfed up, like a dog called to eat its meal. Family History is like an old tune running through my head, however, and I manage to get something accomplished almost every day in the way of learning or doing or helping others to learn and do the job of reclaiming their ancestry.

In our blended family, my husband and I have nine children and twenty-one grandchildren. I have an Albanian son-in-law, a son who filled his mission in Taiwan and now teaches the culture, history, and language of the Chinese, a son who is dating a Chinese girl, a son who was married to a wonderful girl born in Honduras, thus providing me with grandchildren who are naturally tanned all year aroung, and I'm just beginning to realize how it all comes together as the family of God. And to think I am privileged to have as part of my own family, some of His children with origins local and origins worldwide! Family History has opened my eyes and my realm of experience on a personal level, but also on a cultural level. I am always excited to study about other countries, other religions, other ethnic groups and genealogy has opened this door for me as I've been allowed to assist others in their search for family.