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The work is never done... Where to focus next?

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 When I started working on my family tree, I worked systematically, methodically, upward on every branch, following the male lineage as far as I could.  That was an easy way to start and was pretty quick moving.  When it came to certain branches where I was finding a lot of information, I would sometimes focus on a particular family or line to fill out more information.  That was years ago, and I am still  working on my family tree.  I believe that I could work on this for the rest of my life and still have unanswered questions and empty branches.   Now, however, my tree has a lot more information on it, with about 1200 people, 820 pictures, 10,000+ records and I know a lot more about my ancestors than I ever did.  But when you have this vast of a tree, and you're not in the middle of a certain family, how do you know where to focus your efforts next?  If I'm completely honest, the tactic varies depending on how I am feeling at the time....
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Reading Records I Can't Actually Read: Exploring Czech Church Records

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I thought it would be fitting, for my first real blog post, to go back to the family that really kicked off my interest in genealogy.  These notes are actually from research I did over a year ago.  Going forward, this blog will be a mix of discoveries both old and new.  For anyone who has done research on relatives from the Czech Republic, you should already know about the treasure trove that are the Church parish registers from the various regions.  If you haven't,  you may be missing out on some very valuable records!   When I started my research, I didn't know much about my great great grandmother- I knew her date of birth, time period of immigration and that she was sent here to marry the child of a man who had immigrated from the Czech Republic as well.  What I started with:  Rose (Ruzena) Chalupnik, born March 3, 1881 Immigrated to US in 1902.  Has at least one sister, named Josie, and her Uncle sponsored her immigration. Translati...
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Funny Finds: Chicken thief!

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While much of genealogy is a slog of searching endlessly through records, it is important to remember there are bits of your family history that aren't tied to official records.  One of my favorite things to do when I have a little spare time is to search the newspapers for mentions of my family.  I particularly enjoy the newspapers from the mid-1900s, their social sections were the equivalent of today's facebook.  They listed events that were held, times when people left town to visit other people, and were generally nosy and in everyone's business.  You can find some truly interesting facts about your family from that time period that may not have ever been mentioned to you. Today, I wanted to share one such gem that I found one day while searching my Brenneman side of the family on the newspapers in Iowa. OK, seriously, I could not stop laughing forever after finding this.  It is still a story that I tell everyone when I speak of our genealogy and some of the...
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Too Many Branches...

 Hello and welcome to Too Many Branches, a journal of sorts, for me to document my exploration into my family genealogy.   A bit about me: I was not always into genealogy, but about a year and a half ago, I decided to start looking into my roots.  I went on an insane spiral down into the rabbit hole, much like Alice, and have been obsessed ever since.  I now have 1099 people in my family tree and add new members all the time.  I've tested my DNA, and that of a range of family members, and found some surprises along the way. I have started to build connections all over the world! A bit about this blog: I am currently researching both my history as well as that of my husband.  I plan on documenting both families here, so it might get jumbled up from time to time, but I will always document what line I am writing about.  I plan on creating a page to list surnames as I write about them, so if you are here for research, you will be able to see if I hav...
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