Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015 - (Page 10)

by Andrew Staton AT 13, I THOUGHT I HAD EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT. HAVING PLAYED VIOLIN IN MY SCHOOL'S ORCHESTRA FOR THREE YEARS, I WAS READY TO MAKE A CAREER AS A MUSICIAN. BUT ON AUGUST 2, 2008, MY GRANDFATHER, GLENN LEWIS STATON, SR., PASSED AWAY, SPARKING A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT WOULD CHANGE MY LIFE. A fter my grandfather's passing, my family discovered a website called Find-A-Grave, where family members can design online memorials for loved ones. We created a page for my grandfather. Afterward, my mother told me that Find-A-Grave was seeking volunteers to visit cemeteries, locate graves for families that had submitted photo requests, and take pictures of them to post on the memorial pages. Having always enjoyed the thrill of "I Spy"-type games, I jumped at the opportunity. Together, my mom and I set out on cemetery-exploring adventures. After several months of searching local cemeteries and photographing graves, my hunt took a more personal turn. My father showed me some of my grandfather's papers, which contained details about his father (my great-grandfather)-who, I discovered, already had a memorial on Find-A-Grave. However, there was no picture to accompany the listing. My family and I traveled 30 miles from our home to the cemetery where he's buried. To my surprise, we found not only my great-grandfather's grave, but the graves of his parents. At that moment, I realized I wanted to learn more about my family tree. Tree Climbing and Mystery Solving Looking through my grandfather's ancestral records, I saw that there were many gaps. Luckily, my maternal grandparents had begun a 10 imagine genealogy quest of their own years ago. Armed with their notebook filled with family names, dates of births and deaths, cemetery names, and even a few short stories, I began spending several hours each day on the computer, using websites such as Family Search, Genealogy Trails, and Ancestry.com to piece together information about each person in my family. It was an undertaking I viewed as solving mystery after mystery. In addition to researching online, I pored through obituaries at the local library, and I convinced my family to travel to other libraries and cemeteries in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, and Washington, DC. Through all the tree climbing and mystery solving, I began to form a particular interest in one branch of my family: my maternal great-greatgrandmother, Iva Young (Windsor), and her seven siblings. After seeing pictures of them and hearing the happy memories shared by my grandmother, I felt a special bond with the Young family. Using Facebook, I reached out to descendants from nearly every branch of this family- and every one of them had a wealth of information and stories to share. Among the things I learned was that many years ago, the family had a tradition of gathering at a relative's property on South Carolina's Lake Murray every Fourth of July weekend. I discovered that the property was still owned by descendants of the Young family, and-with the help of newfound cousins-organized a family reunion for the 2011 July Fourth weekend, connecting people who hadn't seen each other in over 40 years. Seeing the smiles on their faces and their tears of joy made all my hours of research worthwhile. Nov/Dec 2015 http://www.Ancestry.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015

Big Picture
In My Own Words Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
National Treasure Volunteering at the National Archives
Driving My Future, Exploring the Past The many rewards of genealogy
Past in Focus National History Day
People-Powered Movements Studying revolutions at Phillips Academy Andover
Hooked on History From paleontology to conservation science, four graduate students share their research
This is History My summer at Crow Canyon
The Benefits of Majoring in History
Making History My journey to the inaugural International History Olympiad
Historians in Training The Concord Review Summer Program
The Ultimate Game
In My Own Footsteps Putting my choreography in the spotlight
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with archaeologist Inna Moore
One Step Ahead Be your own priority
Planning Ahead for College Choosing the best college for your major
Students Review: University of Washington
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015