This past summer I was invited to attend the 25th Anniversary celebration of the Temecula Valley Genealogical Society (TVGS). Current society members were honoring the charter members who founded the organization. By happy circumstance, I happened to be one of them.
Members were also anxious to show off their updated Genealogy Room at the Ronald H. Roberts Temecula Public Library.
The society holds monthly meetings and has a very informative website site — https://tvgs.net/— and Facebook page. Although I am not a current member, I highly recommend checking them out if you’re a newcomer to genealogy or an old timer like me.
The roots of the TVGS stretch back to 1997 when Jo Peck of Wildomar began writing a weekly column for The Californian newspaper she called “Tracing Your Roots.” Encouraged by the response she received, Peck and several others invited a small group—myself included—to her home with the idea of establishing a genealogy society in the Temecula Valley. As my unofficial family historian, I was curious and attended.
The group organized an open house to gauge local interest and, when more than 100 people showed up, TVGS was born.
My personal interest in our family tree began decades ago while visiting the home of an elderly aunt. There, prominently displayed, was a large portrait of a distinguished gentleman in what appeared to be a Union Army officer’s uniform. “That’s my grandfather, the Colonel,” she told me proudly adding few details. Determined to learn more, especially after my beloved aunt passed, I began my quest.
Starting out I relied on handwritten scribbles and good faith efforts by well-meaning past relatives. The internet, of course, has changed all that.
In the late 1980s a computer program called Family Tree Maker (FTM) was introduced to help record and make sense of the information being gathered. These days there are many programs to track your ancestors. I’m not here to recommend one, however 35 years later I’m using the latest edition of FTM.
I also subscribe to Ancestry.com (which can be expensive) but also use and highly recommend FamilySearch, a free website offering extensive genealogical records and search options operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Signing up is easy.
There is something to discover on almost every family tree. For instance, I am distant cousins of George Washington, Abrahma Lincoln, and Mary Tyler Moore. I also descend from a long line of poor but proud farmers.
You might also uncover long hidden family secrets. One friend discovered a relative he thought to be an older cousin was actually his half-brother. Oh, and what of the Colonel? Well, he was a Union soldier, but a Corporal, not a Colonel.
Our fourth grandchild will soon be born. In the spring I will become a great uncle for the first time. We are all slowly handing our lineage to children who may very well live to see the next century. Maybe it’s time to discover your own roots so they can be shared.
As crooner Dan Fogelberg once sang… “Though the generations wander, the lineage survives. And all of us, from dust to dust, we all become Forefathers by and by.”
