I have been fortunate as far as knowing family history because both sides kept excellent records. I belong to several heritage groups starting with the Mayflower Society. I had five ancestors lines on the Mayflower from both sides of the family. To become a member you have to prove your lineage through every generation by documents. Fortunately for me all the work was done by family before me and all I had to do was link through a birth certificate. Then add it to what was already in their records. Even that took several months because they check everything and check it twice. And the documents had to come from a family source, not their records.
On dad's side I was able to go back to the 900's AD through the help of a person I never met who lives in Southwestern Scotland across from Northern Ireland. He lives where my fathers roots began and my surname can be traced back to one man who came from the Fitzgerald family. He killed a man in revenge over killing a member of his family and fled to Scotland from Ireland. He had a change in his name from the order of the King. My roots through dad are Scot-Irish. This man has provided me with documents, photos of graves, etc. of my family that have been valuable for our records. But even with all of this information very few in my family have any desire to want to know about their family's history. Especially the younger ones. I think it is a generational thing as they are not interested. But I have published the family lines in 10 volumes complete with documents, photos and grave site information. It is on record for anyone in the family that is curious When I am dead they might care as they get older and life slows down. .
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
