Dreaming in Seattle

Call me a dreamer but I think I may be an heir to the city of Seattle.

Okay, not really, not even close. But I did find out that a semi-distant branch of my family tree helped settle King County, Washington. That’s exciting for me, considering all I ever hoped to discover is that my surname is something more than a misspelling.

What’s even better is how I learned about my Seattle connection – from another member of Ancestry.com who saw a familiar name in my family tree (for the sake of full disclosure, it’s not the misspelled line). To make a long story short, this person gave me the contact info for the family’s historian, who was said to have all the details. On a whim, I contacted her; she quickly told me the details about how the family links to the history of the Pacific Northwest and places beyond.

Now my summer goal is to trace my own family line back to this respectable one. True, I probably could have just asked the family historian, but I want to discover the details for myself before I take her up on her offer of a tour of family history hotspots in and around Seattle. (It’s feeling great to be connected.)

I’m also planning to go back through the Member Connect activity notifications I keep thinking I’m too busy to review (they’re listed on the Collaborate tab). I know there’s at least one notification there that pertains to my misspelled family line. Maybe the person who saved that record also has some insight about the original poor speller in the family as well as why no one ever bothered to fix his or her mistake.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

About Jeanie Croasmun

Jeanie Croasmun has been working at Ancestry.com while futilely attempting to prove the horse thief story in her family history for over seven years. During that time, she learned enough about her family to determine that the story is likely a great work of fiction. But the search continues ...