I think, maybe, I make gift-giving a little too tough on myself, sometimes, because I like to come up with just the right gift that probably never even occurred to the recipient, yet is the perfect thing. Thinking outside the "gift" box, I guess you could say.

This year, I went outside that box for Mother's Day with a month-long subscription to Ancestry.com.

It's kind of funny, because my mom doesn't own a computer. No matter, since I can log onto the site using my laptop and go over all the family tree information with her. She's loving it.

Mom's a big genealogy buff and has been collecting information about our lineage since I was a child. But, she got to a certain point when she could no longer find any info. So, I took my laptop over to her place, and we started filling in the family tree chart provided on Ancestry.com. It's really cool.

When you put in a name, a little leaf may appear above it. If so, you click on that leaf and you get hints about that particular person. You might get old photos that have been posted by others who are also doing ancestry research. You might see old birth records or citizenship records. It's incredibly fascinating.

We have been able to go all the way back to the 1700s on both her side and my dad's side of the family. It's a really terrific gift idea, if you have a mom who digs this sort of thing.

And you don't even have to get the big fat package that costs nearly 80 bucks. I think all you really need is a month's worth of access. Then you can save all the information that you learn, and you're good to go.

And, I gotta be honest. The subscription was for her.

But I'm having a blast with it, too.

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