Genealogy or tracing down your family tree of ancestors is the most exciting, educational and rewarding hobby I have ever been involved in.  It can be approached in so many ways and carried  many different directions.  I will share with you how I started my research. In 1996 right after we lost my mother at 92 years old and where it lead me.  I found so many interesting things about our family heritage as I was going through her things.  Some things I always knew for years but never really thought about them.  One was my mother and father were cousins once removed which meant that my mother's father and my dad's grandfather were brothers.  So my great grandparents on my mother's side and my great great grandparents on my father's side were the same people.  Their names were William Alexander and Mary A (Bridgers) Ranne (soon pictured here on this page).  I also found out that they once lived and raised their family for many years in the same county in Texas that I now live in.  I will save what I learned about them for the Ranne/Thomas Line page. This started me thinking so with some of my inheritance I bought my very first computer.  My first program was Family Tree Maker Deluxe (FTM).  Without FTM I would have been lost at keeping up with records. It taught me all I needed to know about how to research.   I was lucky enough to be able to do a lot of research at the archives right in my own home town.   I didn't get on the Internet right away.  I just filled in all I could find from my parents, their siblings and as far back as I could go.  When I got on the Internet I made a Web page on the Family Tree web site.  I found one distant cuz (this is what all call all my cousins no matter how remote) that shared her branch of the family and I gave her my branches.  I hear nothing more for a couple of years. 

In 1998 I got a call from another cousin (that happened to be a first cousin that I didn't remember even though we had met once when I was very young) and we pooled together other relatives that were doing research (some found on the internet and created the Cuz Network.  We shared all the info we could find. We were communicating via by Email Newsletters.    One was a professional historian, one a self taught historian, others that did their share at researching, one a wonderful writer that encourages us at every turn, and one an organizer that coordinated it all into a book.  There were about 7 of us.   We found new relatives all over the country. 

Then I found the MyFamily.com web site (a part of ancestry.com) where they gave you a web site for their family sharing. I started the Ranne Family Web site. I starting inviting all the relatives I knew, they invited their relatives and we built a very informative web site with over 100 active members.  More about this on the the Ranne/Thomas Line page.  

We decided it was time to have a Ranne/Cowan Reunion right here in Fayette County, Texas where it all started many years ago.  We had a big Ranne Reunion at Hass Country with over 65 family members present.  After the reunion and after we started sharing so much on the Ranne Family Web Site we got away from the Cuz Network although we all still work together.   

I got away from research the oldest ancestors because I could not travel which makes it hard to do some of the research.  We had a few members that were really great and could travel so they shared this with me.  I searched out live relatives and helped connect all of them to the ancestors we had found.  Then with the great help of my FTM  I put all this research  together and made Ranne Family History Book for the family that will never be finished.  

I have and am really enjoying the work and the families I have come to know and love.       More on the Ranne Family History in Ranne/Thomas Line page.

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