From out of the clear blue sky, a “long lost” relative contacted me. Actually he wasn’t from the sky … he lives in France. And, in truth he probably wasn’t lost! I figure he knew where he was all along. He e-mailed me because he is tracing our family history, and I seem to be the family “curator.” He’s got “Genealogy Fever” in a bad way!
Tracing family history is my “good” for Only The Good Friday. I figure that in order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. Finding out about your ancestors is a good way to start.
Have you ever been bitten by the “Genealogy Bug?” It gets a grip on you, if you enjoy puzzles and stories. I get a thrill when I hold a love letter to my Grandmother that was written in my Grandfather’s shaky hand writing, or hold a scrap of my grandmother’s wedding dress in my hand. I love finding old photographs of family members and trying to see my face in theirs.
That’s my grandmother on the left and her cousin on the right. I don’t see the resemblance to me at all, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hope for it. Those were a couple of darned good lookin’ women!
I had a bad case of Genealogy Fever back in the late 1970s. I was expecting my first child, and I wanted him to know his “begats.” Now, I didn’t expect that my family had royal ancestors … I didn’t even expect to find any horse thieves … but I wanted to know more about my folks. Imagine if you will, a waddling pregnant woman (reminiscent of a watermelon on a string) digging through trunks and boxes of papers in the summer heat. I went into my relative’s attics and basements in search of elusive ephemera.
Suddenly, all the family was sending me photos and letters and other scraps of paper (because they didn’t want to store it … and they couldn’t just throw it away). I made fair headway on my paternal side of the family. My mother’s side seemed to hit a dead end after a couple of generations. We treasured what information I had managed to find.
My fever to trace my roots burned out after a couple of years, after my second child was born. It could have had something to do with trying to herd two children under two years old. That puts a stop to a lot of things. But, maybe I just gave up? It was overwhelming. Tracing the records was difficult back then, because I didn’t have the use of the Internet. Writing letters to courthouses across the country took weeks and sometimes yielded no information.
Along came my cousin, Ty. Actually, he is my first cousin’s son. He tried to explain counting cousins to me, but that involves math — it’s never going to work for me. “Cousin” is good enough.
His contact came at a very bad time. My niece had just passed away. I had always envisioned that she would be the one to take over this family history stuff (and that I could unload all of this paper on her). I had a hard time getting motivated to look at it all.
Last week, I finally faced trying to upload some family pictures for Ty, because he didn’t even have many of his grandfather (my uncle). I gave him a few of the tidbits about our family that I had found in census records.
“BAM!” On Ancestry.com, he found someone else who had been searching our surnames and instantly took us back three more generations! It’s amazing!
I had posted a family picture, and Ty questioned whether it was who I said it was. He asked where I got the information. I have to say that my Grandmother is the one who identified the person. But, everything Grandmommy said had to be “taken with a grain of salt.” Once when I confronted her about an elaborate falsehood she had told me about her uncle’s “alligator act” in the Gainesville Community Circus, she just smiled and said, “It made a good story, didn’t it?” Those faces in the photos may not even be kin!
Story is what family history all about. I don’t get all that worked up about dates (although finding the name of an ancestor born in 1690 is exciting). I want to know who the heck they were! If you have any of that information for your family, you should write it down for future generations.
I figure that I have a lot of the stories of my family rolling around in my head. If I don’t write them down, when I’m gone they will be “lost.” And, I’m getting older, which brings to mind this quote from Claude D. Pepper: “A stockbroker urged me to buy a stock that would triple its value every year. I told him, ”At my age, I don’t even buy green bananas.’”
Writing family stories is what I’ve been doing this week. Oh, please, Dear God, don’t let me get that fever again!!
Y’all go have a delightful weekend, and visit some of the other folks who post occasionally for Only The Good.
RV Poetry; Candid Karina; All My Great, or Not So Great Adventures; Inside Mo’s Mind; Thorne’s World; Down River Drivel; Duward Discussion; Ramblings of an Unstable Mind; Insightful Nana; Newbie Lifeline; Everyday Tarot; West of Mars; Life’s Journey; Round Circle; Barbara’s Travels; Blog of Revelation; Desert Diva; Blogjem
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Family Tree stuff was one of my main considerations when I first started my blog. My idea was that by putting various bits of information about our family into posts on my blog along with self-disclosure -how my weird mind works at times -would leave a bit of a record for my children but even more so, for my grandchildren when I am no longer with them or able to converse semi-intelligently, etc.
I have 4 trees I work on from time to time -two on my Dad’s side, two on my Mom’s. One tree, I have traced back to the early 1600s in Sweden! The others -only go back to the early 1800s. I have a small rock on the shelf above my computer, given to me by the lady in Sweden who sent me the church records used to trace my maternal grandfather’s family, and this little rock came from the foundation of the old church in Sweden where my ancestors once worshiped. It brought me to tears when my friend gave this rock to me last year!
So yes, I guess you could say I understand completely how it makes you feel to read a letter or card in someone’s handwriting, to touch the fabric of an ancestor’s wedding dress. And it helps me know myself better in the process as well!
Great post, Shelley and it truly is a good thing!
Jeni Hill Ertmer´s last blog ..Good Fortune
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