tracing your ancestry Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

February 8, 2014 by Rhonda Gales

It’s Black History Month, and I wanted to share a little of my history with you so you can get to know me better. I’m in the midst of tracing my ancestry, and I discovered that a small town near me was discovered by my great, great, great grandmother and grandfather. I remember going to family reunions in a town called Johnsontown, WV, but I have to admit I had no idea of the history behind it.

The town was discovered by George W. and Betty Johnson who were slaves in Pennsylvania. In 1848, they were freed. The slave owners brought them to Virginia where they founded Johnsontown on 12 acres of land. It is now, Johnsontown, WV. My grandfather, my mother’s father, is a descendant. They built several homes, a church and a one room school house in the small community. Before the church was built, the one room school house was used for both church and school.

I remember attending family reunions in Johnstown. The cook-out was Saturday and the following Sunday one of my relatives would preach at the small church shown above. My mother’s side of the family were religious people on both sides. They have a history of being Ministers, Bishops, Evangelists or marrying those who were. I often wonder how my grandfather and my grandmother meet. My grandfather who I loved dearly missed the boat on his religious calling. He drank and raised hell every week-end God sent, but he never missed a day of work. He taught me to care, share, work hard and play even harder. I remember him planting a garden the size of a field to feed all of his children and grandchildren and making a career on the B and O Railroad. My grandparents stayed married until the day my grandfather died. My grandmother grieved herself to death, she passed away 6 months later.

I’m proud of my heritage and wanted to share a part of my history with you. Have you traced your ancestry? Please share a part of your history. Knowing who you are is a great feeling!

How To Trace Your Ancestry

January 3, 2014 by Rhonda Gales

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Do you know who you are? I’ve spent the last few months tracing my ancestry on Ancestry.com, and I must say that it has been quite an endeavor. One that I’ve enjoyed so much I’ve decided to do a scrapbook. I’ve traced my mother’s and father’s ancestry back three generations. I know amazing, right. I think it’s important to know who we are. Once we know who we are, we will understand our greatness and our mission in life. I also think it’s important to share our heritage with our children so they too can understand how great they are.

I received a 30 day free trial with Ancestry.com. The site was easy to use. It asks for basic information like: first and last names, places where you relatives may have lived, mother and father’s name if know, birthday etc. You enter as much information that you have on the person and the systems returns information that you can browse and add to your family tree. What’s cool about the site, is they do some of the tracing for you when you’re off-line. For example, they return birth, marriage and death records that they think are connected to your family. When you log back in, it will give you an indicator on the person that they may have information on. I also liked that other members may be searching the same heritage line and may have pictures or other documentation that you can copy. You can make your information public for others to view or you can make it private.

I was able to trace my history back to slavery on my father’s side. I was able to find the cemetery where my great, great, great grandfather is buried. On my mother’s side of the family, my ancestors found the first African American community, Johnsontown, in West Virginia. I’m excited to be able to pass this information on to my children and grandchildren with the hope that they will pass it on to their children. So many times we loose our heritage, and as a result we miss so many opportunities to be proud of who we are and what our ancestors accomplished.

I was able to find an ancestry scrapbook, below, on Amazon for a good price. I snatched it up quickly, the company, KCompany, is no longer making the book.   I really like the brown and turquoise colors and the slot on the album where I can add the family name. For some reason brown and turquoise seem appropriate for ancestry photos.


Some may see Ancestry.com as somewhat pricey, pricing may vary month to month, but it was worth the time and energy that it took to trace my roots. I would advise you to try the free 30 day offer, so if you’re diligent you may be able to accomplish tracing a great deal of your heritage during that period.  If you’re interested in digging a little deeper into who you are, check out the site and make some memories for your family.