Family History

When I was a young girl growing up, my mother always told us stories of growing up in England. She loved to tell us about her parents, brother and other relatives and all the things she experienced; including serving in the Women's Land Army during World War 2. At the same time, while moving into town at the age of six; we lived next door to my grandparents on my father's side. Grandma loved to tell us stories of her family too. So I naturally began to be interested in learning more about my ancestry. My cousin Wanda and I were best friends and we spent lots of time writing down names, birth and death dates. Somehow this information was lost. Time went on, I got married, my grandparents died and then I wished that all those stories they had told me had been written down; but it was too late! In the early 1970's a mini series came on TV called "Roots". It was responsible for fueling the passion of many people to begin a hobby called Geneology; me included. I didn't know how to go about it, except for what I could learn from my parents. Time went on. Then in the late 1980's Manistee County was celebrating it's Sesquicentenial and was asking people to gather information proving how long their families had been in our county. I requested the forms and began my search. My Mother was helpful and excited to help. We had land documents to prove they came to Michigan in 1867, I requested death certificates, made copies of birth certificates and made the connection from Philip Hilliard to my sisters and I. I decided to a apply for certificates for my father and sisters too. It was so satisfying to complete the documentation. This was just the fuel I needed to make my hobby bloom. I made inquiries and purchased forms to document my information. Early on I learned that it was very important to be organized because my information grew by leaps and bounds. Right away I had to separate the family history sheets into separate binders according to which family I was working on. I had my father's parents Hilliard and Harju, then I had my great grandmother's family Milks, then other great grandmother Hirvakoski. All the while I worked on my mother's family too of Woods and Seekins. I wrote letters. I didn't have much time since I was working every day in our auto repair business with my husband at the time, we had three teenage daughters and a home to take care of. Our daughters were busy in school events, had jobs, but still had time to help around the house and most of the time had dinner on the table when we came home each night. It was so exciting to recieve a letter answering my questions and fill in some more blanks. One time I came home to find a letter from the Bureau of Land Management. I had requested the document of Homestead Patent Deed from North Dakota of my great grandparents Harju who had immigrated from Finland. It was signed by President William McKinley. Every morning I got ready quickly, had breakfast and wrote a letter or worked at my hobby in some other way, whether it be reading and learning or filling in the blanks of a form. It was so fun!
My mother wrote a letter to a cousin in England whom she hadn't corresponded with in many years asking questions. We recieved a letter back from his son saying his father had a stroke and he would help us. He told us about his family, sent us photos and we began a friendship that grew and grew. David and Sue Makepeace came to visit us in 1994 and 1996, and again in about 1999. He told his brother Paul about us and he then wrote to us with a great amount of information. He has been working on family research too for many years. In 1996 and 1998 Ken, Mom and I traveled to England. We stayed with David and Sue and they took us all around England to see the sights and meet Paul and his family, and to the Isle of Wight to meet relatives on the other side of Mom's family. (Andrew, Ian and Margaret Forman) We had two weeks and it was so wonderful as we saw so many castles, traveled around taking in the English culture and seeing all we could. We went to Leeds both times so we could meet with Mom's old friends in Beeston and while there we saw her old home on Grovehall Rd. We went into her family church and looked in the registry for her parents and brothers names. Of course we took lots of photos! It was a chance of a lifetime and I'm so glad we were able to go. We were so fortunate because the plane fares were so affordable. We were able to go round trip for $260. each ! We were lucky to have a place to stay too so our trip was affordable.
We sold our business in 1999 and the first year I spent lots of time researching history and compliling it with my research and photographs to self publish a book on my family Harju. I began selling books to relatives, by word of mouth. Then the second year I researched and compiled my information and photos to self publish a book on my family Hilliard. I began selling those too. I made ten books at a time, with the help of my computer and the copy shop. Just recently in 2007 I've begun researching history and eventually I will make a book on Woods and one on Seekins for my family and I to enjoy....for eternity! I am happy to do it and feel a responsibility too; because I feel it's so important. Maybe someday someone will continue what I began.