My journey began with looking up people in the phone book with the name Eckford. I chose to do my Eckford family because at that time there were very few people with that name. I received several letters back, one was from Gladys Eckford. She was researching her husband’s family for her children. She had send me the census which contained my 2nd great father family on it. In 1969 my father’s brother was visiting from Texas. Most of the Eckfords in my family are very quiet, reserved people, so I was pleasantly surprised when Uncle Eddie shared family information with me. There was also his cousin, Bessie Clemons who wrote me and told me about her family. During that time researching family history was not as easy as today and you had to scan through pages of documents to get information.

After doing a lot of research on my Eckford family (my maternal grandfather). I started researching my maternal grandmother’s side. I knew most of her siblings, but I only found out who her father was by obtaining her social security application. I started from there trying to fill out my tree on Ancestry.com. I found a person with her father’s name in the area where she was born, but I needed confirmation. I was able to get the confirmation through contact with a DNA match. This cousin had also been doing family research and had a lot of knowledge about my grandmother’s family. Through her I was able to extend my tree to one set of my 3rd grand parents.

Doing family research is a lot like completing a puzzle. I am still looking for missing pieces and connections.


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My Ancestor's Footprints