Week 5 – Life Experiences - 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy Week #5

Week 5 – Life Experiences: Sometimes the challenges in life provide the best learning experiences. Can you find an example of this in your own family tree? Which brick wall ancestor are you most thankful for, and how did that person shape your family history experience?

The brick wall ancestor that has taught me the most would have to be my great-great-grandfather Timothy Creeden from County Cork, Ireland. One of my uncles had gotten interested in genealogy in the 1990s and was telling me and my father how much more was becoming available online. My father asked me to see what I could find out about Timothy and that got me started on researching my family tree. While I still haven't found much on Timothy himself, the search has led to so many other discoveries.

One of my first posts on this blog was about Timothy and My Irish Brick Wall. While it seems like I've made little headway with Timothy, I can see from my post that I have learned a few things over the past year. One idea I had was to try and find obituaries for each of his children. So far, they haven't shed any light on Timothy, but they have been an adventure in themselves.

My search for Timothy has led to getting in touch with others researching the same trees and a wonderful visit from an Irish Creedon. We don't know if our families are related, but he does have a missing Timothy that's about the same age as mine. Even if I never find the exact link back to Ireland, it's been a lot of fun!

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more.