Saturday, March 19, 2011

Shaking the Family Tree

The truth is, I was never that into researching my family tree, discovering old ancestors, finding my roots, all that. But this project dictates that I be in hot pursuit of that Ur-Buchalter who connects my grandfather to Lepke. So this week, I opened an account on one of those online family tree sites (more details when they accept my sponsorship proposal - wink) and sat down to a task I wasn't really all that interested in.

Except that....I'M HOOKED! I haven't had so much fun since we were taught genetic charts in 9th grade Biology. [I loved those "will the baby have brown eyes or blue?" exercises so much that I even thought I wanted to be a geneticist for a while - well, until Chemistry 101 in college, truth be told.] Okay, so you put in your beloved ancestor's name, and up pops all these documents and snippets of proof of their existence at various moments in history. Which leads you to the next one down the line, and the next one, and the next one. This one moved from here to here, and has now taken in so-and-so. It's an incredible interactive puzzle - and I'm on to you, Ur-Buchalter! Oh, and if anyone knows of a great genealogist specializing in Russia, lemme know....

PS. It was an incredibly beautiful day here on Governors Island (Spring is in the air!). After a pot-luck lunch with fellow artists, we were treated to a tour of the island by a National Park Ranger. I recorded the whole thing, so ROOM/TONE #2 - my next in a series of sound collage documentaries - is officially on its way. I may even have found a spot to install it.....oooooooh yummy.

No comments:

Post a Comment