Around 1995, a friend asked if I could help find the father she never knew. Having no experience looking for people online, I wasn’t sure if I could be of any help but I offered to give it a try. This opened up a whole new world of exploration for me that took me back to my own roots.

Genealogy is a fascinating hobby and the tiniest piece of information you find on a family member pushes you to learn more. That is exactly what happened in my case. While looking up names that were provided for me to find my friend’s father, I decided to type in a couple of names from my own family to see what information may be available.

Weeks went by before any relevant information could be passed on to my friend but when I did find something it was big. My friend’s father had left his family for parts unknown but through a lot of digging, other members of his family were found. Letters and phone calls were sent and received, and eventually an in face meeting took place. Though her father was deceased, she at least...