How I Became Interested in Genealogy

Sometime during my 6th grade year we were learning about the American Revolution. For some reason or another the topic came up at home and that was when my mom told me the story of Isaac Van Wart.

She told me that as Major John André was en route to deliver secret documents detailing the plans of the American Army to Benedict Arnold three men stopped him. They discovered the documents and turned him in as a spy and a traitor. These men stopped an event that could have led to the defeat of the United States and a victory for the British. She also told me that one of these men, Isaac Van Wart, was related to me in some way. She said her uncle had done a lot of research on the family and discovered some really cool things. I then looked Isaac up on google and came across this picture:

The image depicts the capture of Major André, showing them pulling the documents out of his sock. I thought it was incredible that a picture (even just a drawn one) existed of someone related to me from so long ago! I wanted to find more but had no Idea where to start. The next year, in 2013, I created my ancestry account in hopes that would provide some more information. Once again, however, I was utterly confused and it seemed as though all the records were behind a paywall. I now know that is not the case, there is a surplus of free resources you can use but I had no idea.

Instead I started digitizing everything I had. All the Hi-8 tapes taken of me and my sisters growing up had to be transferred and no one else seemed to want to do it so I took up the responsibility. I found a hi-8 to disc transfer machine in the basement, found the camera the videos were originally recorded on popped in the tape and realized nothing was happening. I researched it and realized I needed a cleaning tape. I bought a cleaning tape, popped it in, ran it, and popped it out and still nothing was happening. I researched some more and every online help forum said to hit the camera until it worked. I was desperate so I tried it, and after 3 really hard hits it started working.

Next I moved on to scanning photos. My mom had an album and we had a scanner on our printer. The scanner was slow, took forever, and didn't crop the photos for me. I later found a better one in out basement and it is amazing how much time a good scanner saves.

Now fast forward to Christmas time 2016. My parents were asking what I wanted, and I decided I wanted a subscription to Ancestry.com. They were surprised but obliged. I started my tree, made a ton of mistakes and started over. Then I joined my great uncle in researching the Van Warts. I became interested in my other family lines and researched them as well. I learned how to properly cite the research I was doing and have continued to research almost daily since.