I have my
cousin, Judson Mason, to thank for introducing me to the world of genealogy.
Jud’s mother Della and my father Ben were brother and sister. Our fathers were
also partners in a small engine business in Salem, Missouri where I am from.
Jud, being
19 years my senior, had already spent many years searching for his Mason and
our Copeland family ancestors. His wife Judy once told me she didn’t know any
other family vacation than visiting cemeteries and courthouses.
When I was a
young mother and wife of a military man I asked Jud to share what he had found
on our Copeland line. He had all hand written notes and charts back to our
great - and even a few great-great grandparents with their children and cousins
by the hundreds.
It was love
at first site for me – seeing our family spread out on pedigree charts and
family group sheets - from locations both local and distant. There were so many
more family members I did not know about that had familiar first names so
obviously handed down for generations.
Jud then
explained to me that he was hoping I would take an interest as he would like to
hand over all further research of the Copeland’s to me while he continued with the Mason
family. I eagerly agreed as he handed over notebooks of work on our Missouri
ancestors.
That was in
the late 1970’s and my husband and I lived in Omaha, Nebraska where he was a
new 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force.
On our return from our Missouri vacation, arms full of my new Copeland
history stash, I discovered the base library was offering genealogy classes
which I immediately signed up for. I’ll never forget dear Alice Clopton and
Sylvia Nimmo who alternated between teaching beginning, intermediate and
advanced genealogy at the library. Both were military wives with a vast amount
of knowledge in the field. I took every course they offered - filling notebooks
full of everything they had to teach. I learned everything from reading census
returns to migratory trails throughout the eastern U.S. I never expected the
vast amount of American history I would take out of these courses and have
since become an avid historian, taking many history classes in colleges where
my husband happened to be stationed at the time.
By the
1990’s I was myself working in the genealogy room at the Cheyenne, Wyoming
library and for the LDS that was housed in the same location. For the 3 years
we were stationed in Cheyenne I enjoyed working and helping others with their
research while increasing my own working knowledge.
Then it was
off to Germany to our next posting where I landed a job at the Ramstein AFB
library. In addition to my regular library duties I took on the genealogy
duties as well. By this time I had many of my own family lines back to Europe.
I remember speaking with a cousin on my mother’s side of the family who had
done a great deal of research on his Stagner line. He told me where this branch
of our family was from in Germany and my husband and I located the village; a
mere 20 minutes from were we lived in the Rhineland Pfaltz.
This was my
first experience visiting the European origins of part of our family. What an
exciting adventure! I hope everyone interested in their family’s origins gets
to experience this particular “Holy Grail” adventure.
Though my
cousin Jud is no longer with us I will be forever grateful for his introducing
me to something that has enriched my life in such a profound way.
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