The Thrill of Finding Another Generation

As I've mentioned before, the detective work inherent in genealogy research is one of the things I enjoy and the thrill of uncovering a juicy story is equaled by the thrill of finding the next generation back. When I started my grandmother had most of her genealogy already done, back 9 or 10 generations in most cases,  so there wasn't a lot to discover on my own for that side of the family.  Luckily, I had three other grandparents who didn't know (or maybe didn't care).  In any case, there were lots of unknown ancestors to find!  And find I did. However, after 20 years of research the new finds are fewer and farther between. We get so far on a line and hit our "brick walls" and they remain that way for years.  But this past weekend, one of those walls moved!

I found a death certificate for my 3rd great-grandfather Charles C. Parsons;  it listed his parents names (including mother's maiden name!)- Joseph Parsons and Julia Safford.  I just want to say, I love those anal-retentive New Englander's who felt the need to document everything that ever happened in their town.  My Pennsylvania ancestors, were born, married, and died and nobody official ever took note.

So here's to my 4th-great grandparents - Joseph and Julia.  So far that's all I have but I look forward to finding out more about them in months (maybe years) to come.