Monday, August 24, 2009

An Introduction

My name is Emuel Edward Vassey IV, or Mel for those who know me. I was born and raised in South Carolina, but I currently live in Maine, where my roots go back over 360 years, when my first European ancestor to come to the Americas, James Bunker, was living in Kittery, the town that I now call home.

My paternal grandmother, Elinor Blance Vassey, has long been the keeper of the family history and has quite a large collection of photos, letters, and other documents chronicling our past, and I decided to start this blog as a way to compile that history and make it accessible to both family members and the general public. As Roots author Alex Haley said, "In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future."

I hope to be able to do justice to the past and will work on updating this, perhaps not frequently, but diligently. As the bulk of my grandmother's collection covers the Blance and Bunker families, I expect that they will be the most heavily represented here, but I hope also to be able to share history from the Vassey, Merchant, Goudelock, Crowder, Baird, and other families in my own lineage as I find them. Or, perhaps, as they find me.

I also hope that you enjoy my little endeavour here, and if you have information that I could use, don't hesitate to e-mail me.

6 comments:

  1. Mel, this is a fabulous idea! Have you been reading other geneological blogs? If so, maybe you could list them here? I also have a bunch of stuff going back to the Mayflower, 1700's Bristol ME, and not so far back on the adoptive French side (those Catholics, such bad record keepers...). Maybe I'll find time (ha!) and should do this too. It'd be neat if there was a geneological network to hook into so that the blog doesn't just sit like an island unto itself.

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  2. Mel, thanks so much for being interested in tracking our past. I'm glad someone had a desire to do it beside Nana. I love you big cousin!

    Rocky

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  3. I'll follow this with great interest.

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  4. You may be doing this already....but when I was researching my ancestors I put notices up on genealogical 'bulletin boards'. Did these ever help a lot! I heard from one person who was a very distant cousin and had tons of info on my family. Good luck in your search...it can be quite rewarding.

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  5. Mel - I keep looking for more entries about your genealogical history. Just break away from your knitting for a while!
    Janet, busy unpacking all sorts of family records which have been crossing the continent and the seas

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  6. Hello Mel - this is getting monotonous, urging you to do some more work on this blog. I was in Kittery Point earlier this month for our family reunion. 44 people and 4 generations. No one though with the names you are looking for.
    Janet

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