Stealing Time With the Williamsons

Life is really busy right now, so I don't have the time to take a "personal genealogy day" like I used to do every now and then. When someone pays for my services, his or her family tree gets priority and my time...which is as it should be.

However, I always get a little bummed when my own genealogy is neglected for a long time. My solution is to steal an hour here or there for my own research.

This weekend, I was able to find three hours over two days.

My research focus was on my Williamson line, specifically the children of my third great-grandparents John Laurens Williamson (1811-1862) and Susan Quesenberry (1823-1892). Their oldest daughter Ann Williamson (1849-1889) married Alva Russell, from the family for which Russellville, Arkansas was named.

Ann and Alva had a daughter Alberta Russell who married John Hudelson Ganner. Apparently, Mr. Ganner was the town photographer in Russellville. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville has an impressive collection of Ganner's images, many of them featuring my ancestors as subjects. I need to see that collection at some point.

I used my three hours of personal time to research the children of Alberta Russell and John Ganner. Thanks to the availability of Arkansas marriage records at FamilySearch, I was able to reverse research this family well into the 20th century.

It felt really good to make some progress on my own research. I'm planning a family history trip to Arkansas this summer, so getting all my Arkansas roots in order is a priority.

Now I've just finished a long day of researching someone else's family. The cat is fed, the kid is fed, and there's still a few hours left in this day. Maybe I can steal another couple hours to spend with my Williamson family tree.

What about you? When things get busy, do you still make some time for the genealogy research you enjoy? Because you should...