A couple of weekends ago, we went to Camp Calvin Crest to celebrate Jason’s Grandpa and Grandma Kliewer’s sixtieth wedding anniversary. It was really a blessing to be reminded of and see firsthand the rich heritage of the family I’ve married into--a family much like my own in many ways.

The reunion and conversations sparked Jason’s interest in his family tree (his mom had put one together for the Kliewer family), and, naturally, he found a relevant web application to play with. We have been busily entering history into Geni. It’s pretty straightforward--it draws your family tree--but if you’ve ever tried to draw a family tree out more than a couple of generations, you can appreciate how handy it is to have all the (cyber)space you need to spread out. It’s been fun scouring family history to enter as many birth, death, baptism, and marriage (etc.) dates we can find, I’m looking forward to picking my grandma’s brain when we visit her next month. It’s a little like putting together a puzzle, and as I’m sure Jason’s mom will agree, it’s more than a little addictive (I see you adding names and details, Mom). You can go all kinds of crazy, especially if you start adding families connected by marriage (e.g., my sister-in-law’s family or my cousins’ cousins on the “other” side).

It’s been super interesting to make connections either by dates or by relationships, Here are a few of the fun facts we’ve discovered so far:

Jason shares a birthday with my Grandpa Carlson (February 1)
Simon shares a birthday with his Great-Uncle Loius (January 30)
My Great-Uncle Lawrence was married on the day President Roosevelt closed the banks during the Great Depression (March 5, 1933)
Jason’s optometrist is also his wife’s great-uncle’s wife’s sister’s husband