This was my very first family tree, made when I was only about seven or eight years old. I needed to have one for a school project, so I asked my mother to help me with it. She in turn called each of my grandmothers for help, and just a day later this is what came out of it.

I found this family tree in a desk drawer in October of 2004. I was shocked that I still had it, after being stashed away for almost 20 years. But then I was even more surprised that, after a year of doing genealogy, this had several names on it that I hadn’t yet been able to find.