Are you curious why 130 million Americans are intrigued by their family tree?

Here are some of their stories!

New Baby
“When I had my first baby, I started a baby book. There was a page with a family tree that I filled out as well as I could, but I quickly realized how much more of our family story there was to know! I looked at my little girl and started thinking about how she had a whole history I didn’t even know about. By tracing our family tree I have learned more about both of us and will be able to provide her with a rich family heritage.” Rachel, 33

Immigrant Great-Grandfather
“My great-grandfather came from Italy, but that was all I knew. Our family tradition was that he changed his last name when he came over to make it more 'American' sounding. I was able to not only find out our original family name but to also learn where in Italy he came from. It turns out our family lived in the same village for 4 generations! I plan to visit next year.” William, 54

Passing of a Loved One
“After my grandmother passed away I felt a huge emptiness. A friend of mine suggested that I do some family tree research on my grandmother’s side of the family to help preserve her memory. I have since traced her side of the family several generations and am learning more about her all the time! It’s wonderful.” Denise, 41

Wedding Gift
“When we got married, my parents gave us a beautiful family tree wall chart showing both sides of our new ‘family’. It only went back four generations, but I was fascinated that between the two of us we had great-grandparents born in four countries! It was also neat to think that this combined tree would be the family tree of our future children. I’m currently having more research done to continue going back in time.” Maria, 30

Relative’s Research
“I have a cousin who has compiled a lot of information on our living relatives. She made a book and sent it out to the family. It was very interesting, but what I really wanted to know was who my ancestors were. I used her information as a starting point and began researching to find the prior generations in our family. Now I’m working on compiling the research I’ve done so far to share with the rest of the family as a holiday gift.” David, 45

Famous Relative?
“I had always heard that my family was related to Abraham Lincoln, but I had no idea how or if it was just a family legend. Through research, I found out that we weren’t actually related by blood but that he was a close family friend. Because of this, the genealogist I worked with was able to find out a lot about my family through their interactions with President Lincoln.” Ryan, 37

Becoming a Grandparent
“I always thought it would be interesting to have my family tree researched, but it wasn’t until I became a grandparent that I felt a strong need to have it done. There’s just something special about grandchildren that makes you realize how important passing down your family heritage really is.” Meredith, 59

Read on for some interesting genealogy facts!