Two, four, six, eight!

Remember that "motivating" chant?

Two, four, six, eight!
Who do we appreciate?

I guess it's goal is to remind someone that they are well, appreciated. Along the same lines is today's official "holiday": Ancestor Appreciation Day.

I haven't been able to determine who set today's date as Ancestor Appreciation Day, or even how long it has been on the calendar. But since I'm always looking for excuses to encourage others to dig into their family trees, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to celebrate and mention it to you.

Just what should we make of Ancestor Appreciation Day? Well, according to the National Genealogical Society, working on a family tree is the 2nd most popular hobby in the U.S. (It comes in right behind gardening, which reminds me, when was the last time I put the genealogy aside and did some weeding?)

One website that mentioned Ancestor Appreciation Day suggested taking some online genealogy classes such as Beginning Genealogy at Genealogy.com. For those new to family history, here's my suggestion: start at the beginning with yourself and go back from there. There's no telling what you might learn when you begin with your own history and go from there to your parents, then to your grandparents, your great-grandparents, etc.

We'll just need to change the chant:

Two, four, eight, sixteen...