I felt like Alice in Wonderland today, going down a rabbit hole, except that the one I fell into was entirely delightful. I searched my husband's ancestors through the Bouchard line all the way back to France in the early 1600s.

I hadn't intended to dive into that particular hole, but once I had started tumbling, I couldn't stop. And when I showed my progress to Chris at lunchtime, he was equally excited. That made me all the more keen to continue.

Today's foray into the past actually began last night when I decided to start writing my genealogy. I had been thinking about it for some time, talking to my mom and others, mostly about my roots. Indeed, when I began putting my thoughts on paper last night, I shied away from searching for Chris' ancestors because I hadn't attempted to do so in the past, and I didn't know how successful I would be.

What got me headed in the Bouchard direction today was an attempt to gather basic information on Chris' parents. I consulted the database Généalogie Québec, which I access online through the Ottawa Public Library. I've been using this particular database for a few months, since both my father's ancestors and my mother's ancestors came to Ontario via Quebec—the former from England and the latter from France.

Although I've been gathering genealogical information for some weeks now, I hadn't really started to pull it together in a consistent and coherent way. That changed last night when I decided to get started—anywhere—knowing that there's no wrong way to approach this project. I knew that I would learn by doing. As they say in French, c'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron. (It's by forging that one becomes a blacksmith.)

I've decided to approach my genealogy as a collection of facts and stories that I will gather over time and sort into categories, such as different branches of my family tree. The analogy that seems most appropriate is that of a recipe file, with different cards or pages for each recipe. It's less daunting to think about creating my genealogy au fur et à mesure (another great French expression, meaning little by little) than trying to construct the perfect compilation on the first attempt.

My experience with Jenesis will also help, as I envision my genealogy as being filled with stories, illustrated through words and visuals, much like I do with my blog posts. It also helps that I've already told many stories in my blog that I can reflect in my genealogy.

I have the luxury of time to work on this project and the good fortune to have people in my life who can help me access, gather and document tales that would otherwise be lost. Writing my and Chris' stories and the stories of our ancestors is a gift I want to create for our children.