My mother's family is very large.
She is the youngest of ten children and many of her siblings have large families.
About every five years they have a family reunion.
When I was in college I was taking a genealogy course for my major.
One of the assignments was to make a family tree.
My father also has a large extended family, however they do not get together as often and so I do not know as many of the first cousins.
I decided that I would make a family tree for my mother's side of the family.
I met with my mom to get as much basic information as possible.
My mother grew up on a farm in a very small town.
She was baptized and married in the same church.
After she married my dad they bought a farm close to the same small town so each of her children were also baptized and married in the same church.
Several of her siblings had also settled in this same area to raise their families.
I decided to meet with the local priest to look through the church records to obtain information to make a family tree.
The old record books were fascinating to go through.
The old records were hand written in beautiful calligraphy.
I found the marriage certificate of my grandparents as well as the baptismal certificates for their children as well as several of their marriage certificates.
The priest was very helpful in making copies of things for me and he was quite interested in the project.
He asked to see a copy of the family tree when I had it completed.
I was also taking a sociology class at the same time and had to do a history of an area.
I decided that I would combine the two projects and do a history of the area where my mother and I grew up.
I also went on line and to the local historical society to gather additional information in order to make a family tree and gather facts about the first settlers in the area.
I spoke to the professor in the genealogy class and asked if I could include the history of the area along with the family tree for extra credit.
She thought that this would be a great idea.
I compiled the first project.
To make a family tree I found a basic outline to follow then added in facts about the area that the family grew up in.
It was a fun project and I also included a map that showed where my mother's family lived in relation to my father's family.
I thought that in the future I could make a family tree of my dad's side of the family as well.