Genealogy Scavenger Hunt

I was looking for a way to "recharge" my genealogy enthusiasm. I've found that as my life gets busier, genealogy tends to take a back seat like some forgotten glove that has slipped between my car seat and the center console. I know it's there but somehow don't remember to fish it out. So I decided to go on a genealogy scavenger hunt.

What's that? Well, I have a lot of online genealogy websites bookmarked and even a fair number of subscriptions out there for sites like Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, Genealogybank.com, etc. So I picked an ancestor - Robert Hugh Montgomery 1830 (Ireland) -1905 (Maryland) and decided to find everything I could in an hour for him that did not include Federal Census records - which I already had.

About 30 minutes in, I had discovered his headstone at findagrave.com, his military burial card for Arlington National Cemetery at ancestry.com, his son's death certificate at familysearch.org, and his marriage record also at ancestry.com. I also discovered from these records that he was a retired US Army Major who served in the Civil War. So it was on to fold3.com to see if I could find a pension record - YES! It's there!

Then I took a few minutes to write this post but you'll fogive me if I cut this short to return to my scavenger hunt. Hmm - maybe an hour isn't enough. The laundry will have to wait. My husband just brought me another cup of tea and I feel the Internet calling.

So, if you find that you are uninspired while researching your family history, try something different. You may just be surprised.

Happy Hunting!