ha!
shocked, confused, surprised, inquisitive, agitated, mad, and angry

i try to tell people interested in ancestry research that keep putting it off til later. your best resource are the oldest elders in you family. the longer you wait the greater potential for those memories to fade away.

i always asked questions. most often those questions brought out old stories, laughter, or new revelations of how things ended up the way they did. sometimes folks are instantly agitated and confused as to why you’re asking questions about things from 100 years ago.

i give myself an internal chuckle when i visit a state capital records archive, looking for census data, deeds, or old wills, nothing but the 60+ crowd in there. never once seen someone my age or black