Family Tree

My last name is Kelsey, I have reddish-blond brown hair, freckles, pale skin and go by Katy. I have always been under the impression that my ancestry on my father's side was Danish. This is entirely based on a fourth grade genealogy project that required us to research a country that we were from and color in a paper doll-type shape with the folk costume of that country and a flag for the same country. I chose Germany. My mother was certain of this ancestry and the flag was easy to color. I did, however, call my paternal grandmother and ask. Her first real answer to "where is our family from?" was "Utah from Illinois" aka Mormon. The very first answer was "I don't know, why would you want to know?" These answers did not help with my school project. Eventually she gave me the tidbit of "from Denmark a long time ago" and that her maiden name was Metz. By that point in the phone call, I was frustrated by the lack of information and was settled on Germany for the project.

J is going to Ireland for 23 days, so we've been talking about Irish things a fair bit. He knows that part of his background is Irish and is not the first person to question my longheld assumption that I am German-English-Danish, with no mention of Irish ancestry.

My paternal grandfather's first name was Faro. Faro Kelsey. According to J, that is very Irish. I have no idea. But now I'm curious.

On my mom's side, we have an entire book dedicated to her paternal ancestry. My great-uncle Henry wrote and self-published a book called "Doerr Ways" in the late 1980s. Her mom's maiden name was Harris and my grandmother grew up in California, raised by a widower father and a housekeeper. Besides that Rex Harris was of English ancestry, I know nothing on that side.

So, how does one go about researching a part of the family that, as people, is of no interest to you, but as lines on a family tree is fascinating? I would really like to know all of the branches of my family tree to the point of entry in North America. I don't think that I will have to go back more than 150 years to do that, and think of the neat wall hanging that I could make. Like the Black family tapestry in HP6, but without the evil stuff. Another question is, with such a small number of people on that side, why hasn't anyone been keeping track of this stuff? Is there a family Bible out there?

I could ramble on about these questions for hours. Maybe in another post. For now, does anyone know where to even start? I guess that I have to talk to my parents and the crazy aunts and maybe make a chart to start filling in. Well, at least the chart making will be cool.

Geez, I'm such a dork.