I'm a volunteer. I'm Vicky Drake. I live in Tempe, Arizona. I'm a

pediatric nurse practitioner working for the Indian Health Service. I have

two young adult children who roll their eyes (as does most of the rest of my

family) when I begin talking about what they refer to as "Oh NO, not dead

people again!"

I've been absolutely hooked on genealogy for the last 4 years. Before I

started this hobby I could tell you about my grandparents and on only one

side of the family. I can now tell you about (a lot more than just names

and dates) a relative who was transported

to the colonies (as a prisoner) before the Revolutionary War. The fun part

of this thing we call genealogy is the hunt. I could be just as satisfied

researching someone else's surname. I've decided that "puzzle people" are

the ones who get hooked. It's like doing a jig saw puzzle. You have a

small piece with a small red streak going through it in your left hand and

another small piece with a similar small red streak going through it in your

right hand. The hunt is finding the other pieces that will eventually

connect your original two small pieces with the small red streak.

I am researching my children's four grandparents families, since I am now

their only link with two of the families (all older generations have died).

When I started this quest and was naive, I thought I wanted to track them

all back to European Origins. I still do, but I know that I can't

accomplish this in my lifetime. Names that I am interested in include:

Housden, Robinson, Walker, Hamlow, Reed, Snare, Drake, Dutchak,

Combs, Sellen/on, Jesmore and mnay others that I haven't had time to

investigate.

The thing that really got me hooked was a slip of paper in my mothers

belongings that I recognized as something that my grandmother had written.

Started out with: Unknown HOUSDEN, died in the Civil War - married Phebe

Jane Smith who remarried Uri Hackett.

A short time later I discovered George Washington HOUSDEN's original Civil

War discharge papers in a trunk that my sister had. Now, I'm also active

duty military and I know you don't die in battle and get discharge papers...

The hook was set! First I thought that perhaps George disappeared,

deserted or just chose not to come home after the war. But how did his

family come to have his discharge papers? Then I thought that he was

discharged and had started home only to have been waylaid by bandits or

soldiers from the other side and killed. When his body was found his papers

were forewarded to his family. But then the family story would have been

different: He survived the war only to be killed after he was discharged!

So that didn't work. If you want to know what really happened, let me know

and I'll share.

I personally see three values to introducing childern to genealogy via this

medium.