Just when you thought this blog had gone dormant, I’m back! In reality, it’s just two more weeks until weekly blogs resume. I appreciate your taking time to read my blog and I thank you.

I have been teaching for Coastal Carolina’s Osher Lifelong Learning program and my last few weeks of classes have required more of my time and genealogy has had to wait. By May 1^st, though, the semester will be over (for me) and I can return to my genealogy on a regular basis.

It’s odd that I call it “my genealogy” when it’s truly my family’s genealogy. I wonder why it is that only one person every few generations really feels the call to delve into the family history in the USA. I had the privilege of working with a graduate student from South Korea and he was shocked that I did not know my lineage and he was even more shocked when I did not know the meaning of my name! He explained to me that in his culture it was very important to know both. I’d never even thought about the meaning of my name. I knew who I was named after but not the meaning of my name, itself.

So for those of you with the curiosity I had – http://www.meaning-of-names.com can help you discover the meaning of your given and family names. There are also links there to other sites for more ethnic names that do not often appear in many English based resources. Of course, you could use Google or Bing or some other search engine, too. The site I mentioned, though, showed me the meaning of my given name in four different nationalities. For me, the meaning did not change but I’m sure that is different depending on the name. There were also links for specific genealogy sites based on my family name and, of course, the requsite advertisers of family crests.

Happy Hunting!