The other night my family and I settled in to watch the 1939 classic film, The Wizard of Oz. As the familiar images, songs, and lines came through the television, I couldn't help but think, “How was Dorothy related to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry? Are they paternal or maternal relatives? Oh wait! Auntie Em and Uncle Henry's last name is Gale—as is Dorothy's. Uncle Henry and Dorothy's father must be somehow related. Are they really her aunt and uncle or perhaps a grand-aunt and grand-uncle? There seems to be a pretty big age difference there. Hmmm.” I resisted the urge to pull out a pen and paper to begin sketching out possible family trees and kept these thoughts to myself. I didn't want my family to give me “that look” that they always give me when they think I'm obsessing.

I forced my mind to focus back on the movie. “Hey, those dark circles under the witch's eyes look like mine after a long night on the computer looking at census handwriting!” There was just no escaping it. I grabbed a pen and paper and decided to see how many family history messages I could find in the movie. When my husband gave me “that look,” I thought fast and told him it was for work, so here we go with this week's column.

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