What Was It that Sparked Your Passion?

What Was the Spark to Your Passion?
My passion for family research began with the death of my maternal grandmother Anna Marie BINDER Bauer.

My interest in genealogy/family research started when my grandmother Anna Marie Binder Bauer passed away in 1961. As a young teen holding the funeral card in my hand and staring down at the simple gravestone I wondered... and my wonder became my passion for genealogy and family research. 

Gravestone for Anna Marie at Holy Cross Cemetery San Diego, CA

   Much later another spark was ignited when my mother Catherine Mae Bender (BINDER) Berger  retired and decided to get a passport for travel. The difficulty and the process she went through to get proof of citizenship/naturalization etc. continued this intrigue for me.

   I am first generation in America of immigrant parents and research in the countries of Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and the state of South Dakota was difficult to nonproductive. I spun my wheels writing queries, doing translation into several languages, and waiting for postal responses that provided little to nothing from abroad. 
My spark waned.

  Feeling frustrated, I switched my interest to my husband's Dutch ancestry and was tremendously successful. These sparks of success kept me going...nonetheless I was hooked.
More on Dutch research in another post.   

  When I returned to the BINDER research I was more successful in finding information about my grandmother Anna Marie Binder, by sidestepping on the family chart to Anna's half sister, Katherine Binder Muehl.

Katherine is located in the middle of this chart

There will be MORE ON SIDESTEPPING IN THE UPCOMING BLOG ENTITLED SERENDIPITY. WATCH FOR IT.

QUESTIONS:

Have you had sparks?

What sparked your interest in conducting family history/genealogy research?

*****************************************

I would love to hear some of your comments!

Some may go into another one of my blogs.

Copyright @ 2015-16 Diane McClure Lott

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION