In the months leading up to my grandmother’s 100th birthday extravaganza, [15 September, 2012] I signed up for a membership with Ancestry.com to try and find her roots. She was orphaned by the time she was 7 years old, and she had a lot of names and dates, but no information on what happened to her family, or how they came to America. I’ve known lots about my mother’s family since childhood, and how her first immigrant ancestor, John Perrin, possibly came to Massachusetts in 1635 on the ship Safety. But not so much about my father’s side.

Since then, I found the passenger list of the ship that my great-great-grandfather came over on (Virginia) in 1869 with his brothers and sisters, and even was able to find a postcard picture of it!

Favorite genealogy sites:

• Ancestry
• Find A Grave
• GenealogyBank