Hi everyone!
It's time to get to know another one of our wonderful WikiTreers. This week's member is Celia Marsh.
Celia became a Wiki Genealogist in September 2020. She is active in our England Project and a terrific participant in the WikiTree Challenge.
When and how did you get interested in genealogy?
My aunt worked for a time as living history at the Plimoth Plantation, and some of the stories she would tell there were of our ancestors, so I always had a sense of my family fitting into the past. In college I studied social history, which is much more about the roles of everyday people in the course of history, not just the big events. Which ties into genealogy all over the place, from the way families are structured and grow to the way that they would have lived or where and why they moved.
What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?
I love the parts of genealogy involved with figuring things out and making connections, so it's no probably surprise that some of my favorite things to do in my free time are things I think of as puzzles--counted cross stitch, foreign language tv. I'm a voracious reader--mysteries, romances, and science fiction mostly, and for a while I even wrote science fiction.
What is your genealogical research focus?
My focus tends to shift depending on where I am working in my tree. I recently took a couple of branches back to England, so I did the Orphan Trail so I'd be best set for researching them there. Also, because so much of my family tree is in the US, I don't have much experience in other countries, so I enjoy things like the challenges to give me opportunity and assistance in working in other places with other sources I wouldn't have reason to work on otherwise.
Do you have a favorite genealogical discovery?
It's not exactly 'favorite' but I was surprised recently while expanding my tree to discover a fairly close relative was crew on the Titanic.
Something more fun at least is the story of my great-grandfather, Alfred Redfield. He was a well-known oceanographer, and when he died he left very careful instructions on how his ashes should be scattered at sea, including maps of the routes to take and where they should be dropped depending on if the trip was made at high tide or low tide.
What is your toughest brick wall currently?
I have an orphaned great-great-great-grandfather, James (MacDonald?) Marsh. He was adopted by the Marsh family while traveling from New York to Illinois, and I have no useful details about his parents. I may never figure him out, but I do pay extra attention to genetic matches that have ancestors in the upstate New York area, just in case I find a useful hint.
What feature or function would you most like to see added or improved?
I'd really love to see a more connected way of linking people with their adoptive families on the tree. Both for contemporary reasons and historical ones, as adoptive families are a big part of the social part of our history, but also because in historical situations the adoptive families can often hold clues to finding the biological families.
Do you have a story about how someone was helped through your participation on WikiTree?
I had a great deal of fun this Xmas working with the Secret Santa project and helping people.
