Finding My Family

       It is always a question of where to begin when a person gets ready to put together their family history.  I am no different.  Where do I begin?  My Grandmother, Luella Evelyn Wolcott Collar had among her things, a beginning.  When I found the Wolcott family tree I was thrilled, for here was a very complete outline of my family, on the Wolcott side, back to the 1500's and up through my mother and father into 1935. This family tree was typed on stationary from The Boot Shop in Billings, Montana, with a note handwritten that says "Owned by Uncle Linus Shelton Wolcott".  This Linus Wolcott was my grandmother's brother. 

In the 1980's, I proceeded to add as much family history as I knew and have been adding to it ever since. 

Among my Grandmother's papers was a letter from a group called the Descendants of Henry Wolcott dated March 17, 1938 written to Evelyn Wolcott Collar.  The purpose for the letter was to inform her she was eligible to belong to the D.A.R.  There was an empty envelope addressed to Mrs. Mildred Chapman from L. S. Wolcott.

        We have all learned the immensity of the Internet and the information that can be found on this vast Information Highway. I started searching for the Wolcott name and it was not long before I had made contact with distant relatives that directed me to the Society of the Descendants of Henry Wolcott.  I filled out my membership form on 12/9/1999 and joined with a lifetime membership.

         A favorite pastime of genealogists is to visit ancestral homes; walking the same ground as one's fore bearers adds a sense of reality to the persons known only through records.