Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Family Tree Adventures

I've been working hard for the last week on my family tree. I stumbled across a website called WikiTree with free genealogy help. They have templates to fill in with your information and then search engines to use to find other surnames that match yours..I've been able to fill in information and by doing searches found a few photos I've never seen before. The above lady is my great grandmother, Laura Alice Hunt Wagner.  She's my maternal grandmothers mother. Never seen this photo before but found it, and her tombstone on another site, called Find A Grave along with a photo of the gravesite.
I also found a photo of her husband, Henry A. Wagner.
from the same, Find a Grave site..although neither are very good photos, you can see they were a handsome couple back in the day.
They also had a photo of the gravesite,

The only photo I have is of both of them taken out on the dry farm in Montana.
This must have been taken before 1917 as Grandma Laura died in a terrible accident in April of 1917. They were coming  back from spending Easter Sunday with a widowed brother, when the wagon tipped over in a river, trapping Grandma underneath. Grandpa remarried but his second wife died soon after giving birth.
Its been almost addicting, finding these photos and tracing the ancestors. I did this way back when and have just picked it up again.
When I think, the huge box of photos my grandfather had, and how they were given away to the thrift shop back in the 70s as the family thought no one would want them, sigh.  I'm so thankful for the web and others that have the same interests. You never know what a long lost family member has a photo you will cherish.
If you'd like to start your own family tree, the Wiki Tree site is a good one. Ancestry.com is excellent for research but it is pricey. They do offer a 14 day free trial. Find a Grave is excellent also and is free.

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