We didn't know much about the family and knew even less about genealogy! We found our way to rootsweb.com and from there to ancestry.com. We searched for CV & Auline, but came up empty. They should have appeared on the 1930 census, but we couldn't find them. We searched for their oldest child, Frances "Tootsie" Albea. No go. Finally, we searched for my grandfather, Roy. Jackpot!
We were so excited! There was my grandfather, as a four year old boy, listed on the 1930 census. We didn't jump, but there was hugging involved. I think I bugged all of my friends about the find for days!
And we also saw why we couldn't search out the other family members. Charles Vernon was Verna, Auline was Aulin and Frances was Ninola. We had just gotten started and didn't know how to use wildcards or search for middle names. Needless to say, this find taught us a lot and started an obsession.
