So, the other week I got it in my head that I wanted to watch a good TV series about the Mongols. You know, something epic, historical. Thought it would be interesting.
I actually spent a fair bit of time looking. First, I did the usual stuff. Scrolled through all the streaming platforms I have access to. Found plenty of documentaries, some were okay, others really academic and dry. Remembered that Marco Polo show from a while back, watched a bit, but it wasn’t quite hitting the spot I was looking for. Asked around, checked some forums online where people talk about historical shows. Still didn’t find exactly what I envisioned.
It’s funny how looking for one thing leads you down a completely different path. All that searching and digging around reminded me strongly of this project I took on a couple of years ago, trying to trace my family history. It felt kinda similar, trying to piece together a story from scattered bits.
Digging into the Past – A Different Kind of Search
That whole thing started pretty simply. I just got curious about how far back I could trace my dad’s side of the family. Didn’t really know what I was getting into.
My process went something like this:
- Started talking: First steps were just chatting with my folks, my grandparents, anyone older in the family. I gathered names, dates, places they remembered. Wrote everything down in a notebook.
- Went online: Then I jumped onto the web. Signed up for one of those ancestry website free trials. Of course, I got hooked and ended up paying for a subscription because you need it to see the actual records. Spent hours clicking through names, trying different spellings.
- Found some documents: Started finding actual stuff! Census records, old ship passenger lists, birth and death certificate indexes. It felt like being a detective, honestly. Putting little clues together.
- Hit roadblocks: It got harder the further back I went, especially before the late 1800s. Records were patchy, sometimes damaged. The handwriting on old documents? Almost impossible to read sometimes. And names weren’t always spelled consistently, which made searching a real pain.
- Tried the old-fashioned way: When the online trail went cold, I decided to try offline. I actually drove to the county courthouse archives in the area my great-grandparents lived. Spent a couple of days there, hunched over a microfilm reader, scrolling through dusty old records. Gave me a headache, but it was kind of cool.
- Visited cemeteries: Even went a bit further and visited a couple of old cemeteries I knew some ancestors were buried in. Walked around looking for headstones, taking pictures, making notes. Felt a bit strange, but also quite connecting.
In the end, I managed to build a family tree going back reliably to about the mid-1800s, maybe a bit earlier on one branch. Found some interesting little stories and details along the way. Nothing earth-shattering, just normal folks’ lives.
So yeah, never did find that perfect Mongols TV series I was initially looking for. Might try again sometime. But that search definitely sparked the memory of my genealogy project. It reminded me how satisfying that whole process of digging, searching, and piecing things together was, even with all the dead ends and frustrations. Sometimes the journey of looking for something is more memorable than what you actually find. Maybe I’ll tackle my mom’s side of the family next.
