I’m home.  I’m finally home.  Not just home in a house, but home on the East Coast.  I’m finally where I belong, in the midst of my ancestors, many of whom died centuries ago.

At the end of March, my husband announced he’d applied for a job in Maryland.  By May he’d moved into an apartment, and I was furiously house-hunting for our new, permanent residence online.  By July I’d finished preparing our five-acre ranch home in California for market, and on August 13th the day it closed escrow, my son and I loaded up all of my family heirlooms and my genealogical records into a uHaul (would never consider sending such items with the moving company who took the rest of our household belongings!), buckled up the menagerie of dogs, and began our 2,800 mile trip to the Mid-Atlantic!  I’m not looking back!

Our California friends think we’ve gone crazy, but we are both thrilled to be here.  Now that we’re settled in our new house and I’ve also found a new job, I’m just about ready to start venturing on some genealogical field trips.  First on the agenda – the National Archives in D.C.!  Next, a trip to Ellsworth and Bar Harbor, Maine to see if I can flush out any other records on my Stanwoods and Wasgatts.

In the meantime, I’ve been using my genealogical investigative skills to assist a friend with her own family history.  While my own family research has given me that sense of belonging, that need to “come home” to the East Coast, it is thrilling to be able to help someone else find their own sense of roots.  (And I’ve learned it’s almost just as emotional to find someone else’s missing link as it is to find your own!)  Genealogy – so much more than a hobby.  It’s finding the who, what, where and how of our lives, our parent’s lives, our grandparents lives, and so on.   When our ancestor’s PAST is intertwined with our TODAY, there is indescribable joy in finding how it all relates.  And sometimes that past may influence how we choose to live today…or in my case, where!