Welcome!

Navigating the Blog

This is a blog written for our family.  I have made our grandparents the anchors of the family.  In part to protect the identities of living relatives and in part because it's just a good way to organize a lot of genealogical information.

Charts

When reading the blog posts, you will see a family-tree graphic.  It always starts at the bottom with one of our grandparents.  So, if you are my kids, all of these ancestors are yours!  For my nephews, nieces, or cousins, just figure out which grandparent(s) you are related to.

(Oh, and by the way, when I have a photo of our ancestor, I will use it, but when I don't, I use the state flag of their birthplace, or a special graphic indicating their war service.)

Grandparents

On my side of the family, the four grandparents are:

• Olive Peck and Bayly Finkbiner, Helen North and Delbert Day.

And on my husband's side, the four grandparents are:

• Secondo Borasio and Marcella Rumiod, Charles Spalding and Esther Woodley.

Labels

Once you've identified our common ancestor, use the labels on the left side to find the resulting blog posts.  For instance, "Delbert's Ancestors."  There are other labels as well:  if you are interested in Civil War Stories you will find all the ancestors that had Civil War experiences.

There is also the Search Button at the top right, use it to find exactly what you are looking for.

About Me

I'm Shannon (posting as cosmokids), and I started genealogy research in 2009 after my sister started a family tree on Ancestry.com and asked me to collaborate with her.  I have been hooked ever since.

I started this blog in January 2014 to bring the research to life, and to share our stories.  Four years later, it was time for some updates and Our Family Tree Tales has just received a make-over!  New design and updated navigation makes everything more beautiful and hopefully easier to use.

On this blog, you will find detailed stories about individual ancestors.  New blog posts are in the works, so check back often!

Unique Stories

All of our ancestors have unique stories. By telling their stories, we get a glimpse into their lives. We can almost imagine what it would be like to live in those times. By learning their names and their experiences, we realize that they are a part of us. Now we know where we come from and we know that our family members were part of significant American historical events.
Here are some of my favorites:

For the Pecks:  Read about how our 2x great grandmother homesteaded in Dakota Territory

For the Finkbiners: Read about the origins of the Finkbiner name, it's a good story from the 1300s

For the Norths:  Read about our Bohemian Ancestors, there is a copy of the ship manifest there.

For the Days:  Read about John B Lewis in the Civil War, you won't believe what he went through!

For the Woodleys:  Read about early Denver-ites and their connection to the Tabors.

Family Web Sites

Now, I am branching out and creating websites for specific family groups.  The purpose of these websites is to provide quick information about our ancestors, and then if you want more information, pop over to this blog for the details.

Days on the Tree is a website for my grandparents, Helen North and Delbert Day.  Here you will find information displayed in a graphic format - charts, timelines, flip-boxes.

• Wondering where our ancestors came from?  
• There's a page for our Immigrants. 
• Wondering if our family was involved in historical events?  
• See the pages on our Revolutionary War Soldiers and our Civil War Soldiers.  
• Want more fun facts?  
• Check out the fun trivia page for some random facts.  It's a perfect synopsis of all my years of research.

More websites are on the way, stay tuned!

Family Tree  

The family tree is built at Ancestry.com. All the details are there, including the supporting research and documentation.  If you would like to see it, please email me and I will send you an invitation.  You will need to set up a free ancestry.com account, and there is no charge for viewing the tree and its information.

I'd love to hear from you: email me at OurFamilyTreeTales@gmail.com