ALBIA — Sifting through dusty old courthouse records and searching through miles of microfilm may not sound like your cup of tea. However, it can be quite exciting, as those little pieces of the puzzle come together to form your family tree.

Genealogy is a hobby that anyone can take on. Advances in technology have made it easier to find all those little pieces to the puzzle. Even the home bound can do a tremendous amount of research from the comfort of their home with the help of an Internet connection.

I recently attended the 40th annual Gray family reunion in Albia. This is the reunion for the descendants of George March Gray (1889-1969) and Cora May Tyrrel (1890-1950), they number well over 300 now. All of their children have passed on, except for their youngest daughter, Grace Gray Sample of Albia.

The family has a lot of love and respect for Grace; after all she is the head of this large family now. She is a mystery author. She has had several stories published in magazines and she has two published novels: “While She Was Sleeping” and “When Darkness Falls.”

The 40th reunion was a pretty big deal for the Gray family with relatives from as far away as California in attendance. Organizers spent the past year preparing for the big event; a descendent book was created, a DVD of family photos was produced, a memorial wall was assembled and more.

Those planning the event requested photos and various information from the rest of us, throughout the year. The reunion became motivation for me to delve into my family history research a bit more fervently.

In our youth, we don’t always realize the value of our ancestry. I wish now that I had been interested in it at a young age. Perhaps I would have talked to my grandparents about it more while they were still here.

My husband, David, has been an avid genealogist for many years. It was while tagging along with him to courthouses, libraries and cemeteries that I found my interest in this hobby. I have to admit it has been easier for me than for him since so many of my ancestors lived locally in Monroe, Mahaska and Marion counties.

He has nagged me a bit for some time to take better note of my sources. He is a stickler on this; he even won a “best of show” prize at the Southern Iowa Fair one year for his exhibit on genealogy sourcing. He found all the information necessary to prove his ancestry and joined the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Unfortunately I didn’t heed his advice, it was just a fun hobby for me and I didn’t want to be slowed down by those little details; after all I didn’t need to prove anything.

Well, over the past year as I have searched my roots further, I have found that he was right, I did need to pay a lot closer attention to those details. Now that I am documenting my sources, I am finding that all those little details really do help one find bigger pieces to the puzzle.

To document sources, make sure that you keep track of where you get all your information — birth records, death records, military records, etc. Even keep track of phone calls, E-mails and other conversations that unearth new details or leads.

I knew that George March Gray’s mother, Mary Antoynette Covey Gray, was a descendant of a Mayflower Pilgrim. However, I sort of wondered if it was really true. After I started keeping better track of my sources, I have found the information necessary to prove that. It is fun to tell my kids when they study the Mayflower that they are descendants of a Pilgrim.

Each new discovery is exciting from the small details about a known ancestor to finding new family branches. All the little pieces of the puzzle form a legacy that can be passed on to our children, grandchildren and future generations.

My year of extra research yielded some new discoveries, which I passed along to relatives at the reunion. And, the reunion yielded a whole new treasure to keep me motivated to research.