SUCCESS!!!

Hey Family!! I can't begin to tell you the excitement I've been experiencing over the past few days!! If you read our blog, you'll know that I'm at home with the flu. However, that has turned out to be a blessing for more than just Sally (she has made it known that she is very grateful for the flu because I have an obligatory minimum 5 days off from work to recover...sounds nice if you ignore the body aches, fevers, congestion, vertigo (only 3 days of that...thankfully it's over). Thanks, Amber, for giving me a place to sleep when I was stuck across town!!).

Alright, so here is the blessing part. I finally got the time I needed to set up my Ancestory.com account and to start looking for names. WOW, is all I can really say. I have found TWENTY people in our extended family from the 1800s (early to late) and some born in the late 1700s who I have confirmed do not have ordinances done. 20!!!! I've done that truly in a matter of hours. Within one hour the first night I was working with it I found a couple and their children. It's crazy.

Here is my plug for Ancestory.com. It has everything you can imagine from birth and death records to census records to immigration files. It has more than any other database out there. All the old Microfiche information is also being digitalized and will soon be available online so no need to go to family history centers with all your children in tow. This can all be done from your couch or computer desk.

Oh yeah, and there are pictures. Here are a couple I found:

You don't recognize the names, but they are from our lateral lines. These were the grandparents to Thaddeus Constantine Davidson's cousins through his aunt Anna Davidson. Maybe great-grandparents. :) There aren't pictures for everybody, but there will be a ton more for our family on there once Dad and I get them uploaded from his two boxes of pictures I've had stored away for the past 3 years. Isn't this incredible! You may not get pumped up about it until you use it.

There is a 14-day FREE trial on Ancestory.com that everyone of us should take advantage of. Then it costs $12.50/month. About $150/year. I think we can also share accounts to some extent by making other family members authors on our accounts (this is according to Justin Paul who is currently my go to man for New Family Search info because a member in his ward does the programming for it for his job...oh yeah, and that man uses New Family Search and Ancestory.com for his own family history work. Those are his two programs of choice.) I don't feel like it would be honest to have all of us on one account, but I do think sharing accounts between 2 or 3 users seems appropriate. We could also contact Ancestory.com and ask them about it.

On top of that, I've been through Dad and Mom's genealogist's packets (only the last 2 of probably about 20) and in those two packets I found 38 names of people Preston Owens had given us information about but had not had time to document for our immediate use. 38 people! I also have a great document he found on our great-great-great(?)-grandfather, Thaddeus Constantine Davidson, from the book, Progressive Men of Montana, that outlines his life. It's pretty interesting. I'll try to either scan it or just type it up and post it here. Good stuff. Maybe I'll even find his picture to go along with it. :)

The harvest is great, but hopefully in our family we'll prove that the laborers are not few. Family, I have a growing testimony of this work. We really do have a great labor to perform here. It will take our time, talents, finances (maybe just $12.50 a month, though!), and determination to really get this work moving. I'd love to share more with anyone who wants a bit of help or needs a bit of motivation. There is more work than I could ever do in a lifetime. Let's get on it together!