Family Tree Project...what a surprise!!

So, Roman comes home with a project for his kindergarten class, a family tree.  I read over the requirements and quickly get an idea in my head of what to make.  I was super excited to get started.  The only problem is that we come from Cuba and my parents are older than most (my dad is 94 and my mom is 74). Getting information for this project is going to be a challenge.

I decide to start with my husband's family.  He's from Italy.  All I had to do for his family was call with mom and 2 aunts and I got all the information I needed.

My side........what I hunt!  I called my mom but she really couldn't help me much.  She was able to give me the names of  her siblings (9 of them)  and some of my dad's (only 11 of the 13).  Her memory is not as good as it used to be.  I couldn't ask my dad because he gets waaaaaaayyyyyyy to sentimental on the subject.  So then I called up one of my sisters.  She was able to give me all of my siblings birthdays.  Next, I had to call the only aunt and uncle that live in the states to see if he remembered all of his siblings names.  This is when I found out that my dad is not 1 of 13 but 1 of 15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yes, you read this correctly.  My grandmother had 15 children.  I go crazy with 2 and she had 15.  My uncle couldn't remember all of their birthdays but at least I got 2 of them.  This is also where I found out that they had always considered themselves 1 of 13 because 2 had died young.  The eldest daughter had died at 14yoa and the youngest son died when he was just 2-5 days old.  My uncle didn't even know his name. I then called the only cousin that we have here and he told me about his dad.

At the end of it all, what I had was a tree with many mysteries.  It's really hard to get information from my parents side of the family because they are in Cuba.  My family has always been very poor and so there are not many records. All the ones that have information are also older and that makes it even harder.  We can't just pick up the phone and get answers because it was sooo long ago that the information has been lost through the years.

Not to worry though.  I will be trying to expand on this tree.  I am sending a paper for each of my aunts and uncles to fill out with their children.  We may not have to backstory on all of them but at least we'll have something.

Oooops, here is the picture of the project. I got soooo carried away with the story that I forgot about the picture...LOL!!

I cut out the apples with my Cricut.  The red apples are girls and the green apples are boys.  The apples with a brown leaf means that they have passed.

Hope you enjoy :)