"Who do you think you are?"

I am really excited about this little show "Who do you think you are?"  Who knows if it'll last.  But it's got me interested in the whole idea....who the fuck am I?!  No really...seriously. A few months ago, I started asking my dad all kinds of genealogy questions. He probably thought I was crazy with some of the questions I was coming up with.  Although, I know for the most part, I want to know more.  And....I want to know where the hell I came from.  So, I've started to research this, and then NBC comes in and steals my mind thoughts, and comes up with a show.  Ughh.  I started looking up the bare basics, I wanted to see my moms mothers name in writing.  My grandma earned a Purple Heart in WWII, for serving as a Navy Nurse during the Pearl Harbor attacks.  I want to find her name in writing, a picture of her there, on Honolulu with her fellow nurses.  This is something I know I will find...with time and research.

My dads father was a Navy Aviator also in WWII, he freed towns during the war, he went to Stanford, and was a math Professor at Chico State.  He lived with my grandma in a small apartment that still stands in Chico to this day.  And in my hometown there are two streets with my namesake "Peck."  Peck Lane, and Saw Peck Lane.  My great grand-father became one of the first Apple Orchard farmers in Paradise.

I know a little more about when my family came over to the United States...but I want it to be a whole story, what my family did before they came here, why they chose to come here.  I want to know my life history. There is a genealogy institution in Napa, I'm wondering if they can help me. Next week when I am in D.C. I am going to the National Archives to see if there are any records there!  I want to start a family tree and have it tell a story; of how I got here.  Because I want to know who I am. Someday when I have children, I want to tell them...who they are.  Stay tuned.

Do you have any website suggestions for this sort of thing??

My moms surname:
Owen
(Origin Celtic) The good offspring. Oen, Welsh, and Gaelic, uan, a lamb.

My dads surname:
Peck
North German and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who prepared or sold pitch, from Middle Low German pek, Middle Dutch pec, pic.