When I started to work on my genealogy I had some very shallow roots to my tree of knowledge. I knew who my parents and grandparents were, their birth places and the general things that go with that. But I needed more then that. My grandmother Marjorie Irene Halliday Vincent always told us stories about her life on Wolfe Island where she was born and lived til she married my grandfather. So I probably had a better start on it then other people do.
As my tree grew and my roots got stronger they expanded out with a thirst of any fast growing tree. I went from what my grandmother had told us to what my mother had gathered up and the clippings she had always kept. I went from there to what my mothers cousin Flora Irene King had gathered through the years. Both my mother and Flora had kept a diary. My mother had kept one for 52 years starting when she was about 12. Flora only had a few years about the time of World War 2. She gave them to me because of the interest I showed in our family history.
By then my roots were still growing and reaching out for more knowledge. After my parents retired they spent their winters in Florida and summers in a camp on the Chaumont river in New York. At that time I was still working so I would take my vacation time of four weeks ( after fifteen years on my job) and ride with them to New York every spring and fly back to Florida at the end of my four weeks. I was able to help open the camp clear the dust out and enjoy four weeks with my parents visiting relatives.We would spend day's just driving by places eithier where we used to live or a place that was important to my family and searching the old cemetaries.The things that only someone also into genealogy could understand enjoying. This will always be some of the best times of my life.
During my stay we would make a trip to Wolfe Island where we still have cousins living. My mothers cousin Helen Holliday who lived there all her life also worked on genealogy so we would spend a day with her. She would fix us lunch and we would spend the day talking. My grandmother was born in the house where she was living. I would gather all the knowledge that she had.
Another cousin of my mothers who lives outside of Depauville, New York, Nancy Dixon has a store of information She and her husband Bill Dixon are both related to my mother. They have a whole room filled with their genealogy. They have generations of knowledge on hand and will share and help anyone with theirs.I enjoy my visits with them even today.
Most of the rest I have gathered was research at libraries and the Internet. I have located at least a dozen people who share my family line through the Internet. I now can go back beyond my grandparents to the 1200's on my Vincent line and even 890"s on another line. That is a long way back and to have them verified. And yet my roots are still thirsty for more and I will find more ways for them to grow as they now reach out all over the world.
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