Finding Information and What Do We Do With It

I have been putting together a family tree (or a series of family trees) on Ancestry.com. I bought the software package “Family Tree Maker” which also gives me 6 months of access to Ancestry.com, which I received on Wednesday last week. I’ve spent much of the last 5 days on Ancestry.com compiling as many facts as I can from their search engines.
Finding information from one generation to another has been interesting. Many names change from one source to another, for instance Fritz Oscar evolves into Oscar Fritz or Oscar F; on one census Uncle Ray is listed only as Spencer and later information gives his name as Ray Spencer. Some dates are different from source to source. The census information does give us clues to what life was like back then. I discovered that the elders in the family moved in with their younger children, The 1910 census information indicates that 26 year old Fritz Oscar Lundwall was a head of household; with Teckla his wife (pregnant with Ward who would be born in July and this info was not on the census); Nannie (Nancy) his baby daughter; Louisa Equist, his mother-in-law; Emil Equist, his brother-in-law; and Andrew Lundwall, his father all living in the same household.
I’ve also been searching through the internet, and going through a family book of information given to me by our Krans relatives in Aurora, Wisconsin, as well as another book written by Ralph Hoaglund entitled “The Town of Homestead from things I have been told and things I remember." Ralph is the son-in-law of Ida Osterberg. Elen Ekquist Krans and Ida Ekquist Osterberg were both sisters of Teckla, our grandmother. Ralph’s wife is Rhoda Osterberg.
Ancestry.com gives us lots of names, dates, places, relationships, but none of the stories that gives the information new life. This will be a place to share what we know and tell the stories of our generation and share the memories before they are lost. Please take a few minutes to think what made the family special for you, what encouraged you, what made you smile or laugh out loud, or simply what being part of this large extended family has meant to you….. and then I hope you take the time to write us your stories and share favorite family recipes, and share special photos. If you can add to what we know, we thank you.