Member spotlight: Rick Wood

My name is Rick Wood, your new president for this year’s Palm Creek Genealogy Club. I was born in Manitoba, Canada, and now live in Alberta. I have been married for 42 years; have 3 sons, 6 grandsons, and 2 granddaughters.

I first started my family tree after joining the Palm Creek Genealogy Club just 2 seasons ago. But after 1000+ hours and 400+ members in my family tree, I feel like I have been doing this for a very long time. The main surnames I am currently researching are Wood, McKinnon, Bridle, and Desmarais
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I think when the genealogy bug bit me was when I found a way to get around that first brick wall. The brick walls that I want to blow up now are proof of birth of my great grandfather Jonah Wood and immigration information on my great great grandfather Samuel Wood. Birth records are scarce for the early 1800’s in Canada. This would prove or disapprove that my family has German roots not Irish. I grew up believing that my family was from Ireland but have found census and land records that lead me to believe we are originally from Germany. I better to be able to prove that with sources before I tell any of the family or I may lose a few of the older ones from the shock!

I find a lot of information online by looking for confirmation between Family Search and Ancestry. I have also found some amazing information on Google!

I hope to find these records when I stop in Salt Lake City on the way back to Alberta. We will be doing our usual trips to Manitoba to visit family so I will do more local research. I am considering a trip to Ontario in October to the Pickering/Barrie area as this was where my ancestors first lived in Canada. Then point it south to see you in Palm Creek in November.