many years ago my late grandfather Oscar mailed me a very thorough family tree he had laboriously put together taking advantage of all his trips back and forth between Germany, England and Spain. i was enthralled with it back then, a time when there were no internet browsers and things had to be done by word of mouth, digging up family Bibles and paper records. in spite of the limitations i was able to add substantially to it. i had stored it away for over 2o years. this week, in an effort to rid myself of baskets filled with old letters and cards received over the years, i ran into again together with a letter from a distant uncle (now deceased) who had introduced me to the Webbs and off i was again researching all lines of the family, this time with the advantage of several websites dedicated. ofcourse i did not stop there. with the excitement of records found, i began the Hughes family tree and the Caudill family tree, the hardest so far to put together. the berger tree is now up to 200 people. it has been really hard tracing all the bergers that emigrated from England to South Africa and Australia. i beleive there are some even living in British Columbia.


it has amazed me to realize that the true baby boomers were not our parents after World Wars I and II but the previous generation. families on average had 5 to 10 children, many lost in childbirth, thus the incredible branching out in our generations.


this is my latest obsession and until i can fairly complete the 7 generations i will not give up.