What does it mean to you?

Two important questions to ask yourself before beginning your research are:

1. Who or what am I looking for?
2. Why am I looking for this information? 

Some people may be looking to satisfy a simple curiosity, while others may be seeking some kind of closure or other various reason. For me it's about completing a story. Imagine walking in on a good movie when it's half over. You have no idea what happened leading up to that point, so you're dying to get back to the beginning to find out. I needed to get back to the beginning of my family's story to understand how we got to where we are today. While I have had some success researching my lineage through my paternal 2nd great grandfather, I have also been on a mission to find the next set of living relatives of each of his 9 siblings. I feel confident that somewhere there is someone who has information to fill in some of the blanks to this great story! I also thought it would be cool to connect all of the descendants (and hopefully meet), and as best as I know, no one has taken on a task like this! To date, I have been able to make contact with the descendants of two of his brothers and have located the descendants of two more of their siblings! The research continues!

So start thinking about what your research means to you and what you're looking to accomplish, and go for it!!!