Climbing my family tree, part 1: The beginning of the climb.....

Ever since watching the "Roots" miniseries in 1977, and reading Alex Haley's novel later that year, I've had a desire to research my family tree. And it's something I've thought about doing, and talked about doing, for many years. Conversations with my parents about ancestry over the year gave me a sketchy oral history of their families. All four of my grandparents were deceased before my sister and I were born, so I obviously couldn't ask them for information. But I have surviving relatives in my extended family. Many of them still reside in the Buffalo, NY area.

( An abbreviated family history as I knew it, with last names omitted for security purposes. )