My father, Harold C. Amacher did beautiful research on his family. The results were in the form of a precious three-ring notebook. My father's introduction to his genealogy book are on the John Amacher and Carrie Kenzig page. His research was just too good to keep to myself. My motto is "Family Information is for Families," so I scanned my father's text into the computer and inserted some family photos, and distributed the book to anyone who showed interest.
In the meantime, I learned that Tom is the fourth generation of the McAdams family to live not only in the United States but in the city of Pittsburgh. It has been great fun to learn about the Pittsburgh of the mid 1800's and to visit the places where the McAdams family lived. With each discovery, I wrote a newsy letter to Tom's aunts. Inevitably, someone suggested that I write a book. By that time, the task consisted of stringing the letters together into a story and developing a table of contents.
Then came the Internet. I met some wonderful people like Mike McAdams through FamilyHistory.com - Message Boards and others like Richard Craig and Kelly Selcher through GenForum.
In my browsing, I found some great resources like The Carnegie Library's Pennsylvania Department Genealogy Page and the McAdams Historical Society. Then our friend Jinky showed me her album at PictureTrail. Soon I had my own web site. Just go to PictureTrail, type in "McAdams" for the member name and push the "GO" button. You will see my on-line family histories of the McAdams and Amacher families as well as pictures of Dave and Tanya's wedding. I was pleased with PictureTrail, but I had been wanting to put together more of my notes for others to see, enjoy, and maybe fill in some gaps. Tom and I took a course on Web Page design through our local community college. Since my books were already on computer, it didn't take too long to transfer the text and images to HTML.
And, of course, I have to share my little family. The upper picture shows Tom and me adopting our pet kitten Zhaan. The lower picture is the two of us full of Christmas cheer.
So here is our Virtual Family Reunion. Come in, sit down, and grab a cup of Joe, as Norm Mienert's web site, the Allegheny River Family Archives used to invite his visitors. I hope to be making more additions soon, so come back often!
