The prompt for Week 11 of 52 Ancestors is “Lucky.”

My parents have been telling me about my ancestors for as long as I can remember. Stories of their mothers and grandmothers, of bootleggers and pirates, of traitors and immigrants, of connections to famous and infamous people. Each one felt like a piece of me as I learned it, each one left me wanting to know more.

As I work more on my lines and talk to others about their family history, I realize how lucky I am to know these details about my ancestors. I can trace all my lines back to my 3rd great-grandparents, with many lines going even further back, and some going at least twice as far back. Most of this is thanks to my parents, aunts, and others I don’t know.

Recently, the realization that not everyone has ancestors that kept diaries or wrote letters or are mentioned in newspapers came into focus. My ancestors were lucky enough to have time to do these things. I’m lucky enough that some of these things survive and are preserved in collections in diverse places.

I’ve also been feeling lucky to be doing family history work in this age of technology. So many wonderful records are available at the touch of a button. And those that aren’t online yet can be just a email request away. I also love the genealogy groups on Facebook that allow me to interact with people who have similar research interests and who are willing to help find records near them that are thousands of miles away from me.

I feel lucky that I get to know my ancestors through stories and records. As I look for them and learn about them, they become my friends, and I want to know more.