Since I was sixteen my addiction has been genealogy. I love it! I have discovered journals, and traced my lineage back on a couple lines to Adam and Eve or Thor and Odin. I have been given an opportunity to see within myself the people whose manners or features I exhibit, the personality traits that I like and dislike and get to know my heritage far deeper.
On my maternal grandmother’s side there are prominent names that have created American History. Among these surnames are Schuyler and Van Rensselaer. I was immediately fascinated by these names as they dominated Albany, married Alexander Hamilton and there was a plethora of information on them.
One day, while working as a Delta Reservation agent, a phone call came in from a Skymiles Member. The name auto-populated: Schuyler (last name with-held for privacy). I addressed the member, and she was shocked when I properly said her first name–it’s pronounced SKY-ler.
Towards the middle of the conversation, while searching for her fare, I asked, ‘Do you happen to know if you are related to General Philip Schulyer?”
She gasped and told me it was her great-great grandfather and that was whom she had been named after. I shared, that he too was my distant grandfather. We immediately began “catching up”…she is an artist in Georgia and her sister is named Rensselaer.
It would have been a missed opportunity if I had not done my pedigree homework and learned about this family that shaped American history!
I would SO love the opportunity to meet her face to face and share more intimate details.
It could happen.
“Discovering a long-lost relative or simply connecting to relatives not previously known often has a profound impact on people researching their roots,” commented MyHeritage Chief Genealogist Daniel Horowitz. “We’re very excited to partner with Family Tree Magazine to help encourage family history enthusiasts to share their discoveries and consequently inspire others with their own research. With a growing worldwide family network of more than 56 million users and offering services in over 36 languages, reuniting families around the world is a core company value at MyHeritage.com.”
About MyHeritage.com
MyHeritage.com is the most popular family network on the web. Millions of families around the world enjoy having a private place for their families to keep in touch and to showcase their roots. MyHeritage.com’s Smart Matching™ technology empowers users with an exciting and innovative way to find relatives and explore their family history. With all family information stored in a secure site, MyHeritage.com is the ideal place to share family photos, and celebrate and preserve special family moments. With 750 million profiles and 18 million family trees, and available in 36 languages, MyHeritage.com is uniting families worldwide. For more information please visit www.myheritage.com.
*I received no compensation for this post. I just simply am sharing one of my greatest passions. You never know where you come from!