995 Days

006. Take the FSOT

I just completed the application to take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT).  The next round of testing isn't until mid-June, which is great because it gives me about three months to study and prepare.  I've considered a career as an FSO for ages, but never really felt like I could make that kind of a commitment until recently.  Now I find myself giddy with the potential of a well-paid, interesting, and respected career overseas.  The whole process (and holy crumbs, is it a process...) from test-taking to being accepted takes almost a year, though... and even after you're accepted, it can be up to 18 months before you're offered a position (or dropped from the list).

019. Sign up for genealogy site and research family tree - (Completed 03/09/10)
I signed up for ancestry.com and, using their resources and the digital collections from the public library, traced both my mother's and father's lines as best I could.  I had a little more success with my dad's paternal lineage, as his family's been in Rochester more or less since my great-great-great grandfather stepped off the boat from Ireland.  I'd like to do some more research into the family's history in Ireland eventually, but I'm starting to fill in a decent picture of their stateside situation.

My mom's paternal line, however, has a really mysterious break and I can't find any trace of my great-great grandfather.  My great-grandfather's mother was a German immigrant who, from what I can gather, was married when she arrived.  She had 4 children with her first husband until he died in 1883.  The next record of her is in 1900, at which point she's taken a new surname and has given birth to my great-grandfather (born in 1887 and the only child with the new last name), but there's no indication of who she took the name from.  So I'm not really sure what happened.  I can only guess she remarried at some point after 1883 since she took a new name, but the new husband (my great-great-grandfather) either died or left sometime between 1887 and 1900 and is nowhere to be found, so I hit a dead end.

Really, really fascinating stuff, though.  I'm marking this task completed, but I'm still going to continue researching and filling in some of the gaps.  Eventually I'll see what I can do about finding information on my European ancestors as well.