I found a secret half brother for my mother on this website. you can make a family tree without ever talking to any of your family members. i pay for the subscription cuz I love looking at the census records… deciphering that old script, perfect experience for an Ellis Island descendent who likes to use a laptop interface
I just found out I have family still living in Poland (I’m Jewish and I thought that most of my family had left) and I’m so happy to just find out about that and all the interesting things I’ve come across when working with family members to compile this tree
tracing that family tree back as far as possible is exciting and insightful af.
I’ve spent a couple of hours looking over photos, reading stories, and crying over people that I will never meet but played a part in inventing me lol
If I wanted to do this more regularly I’d need some better shoes but recommend at least across one neighborhood or two and have some stuff/gossip ready to talk about or don’t and let the boredom and street observation run it’s creative course
