I have recently received messages from multiple people on Ancestry who are related to Ma’s side of the family and who, like me, are trying to trace the lines of our family tree.
I like seeing that name pop up in messages; the one with ten letters, only three vowels and two z’s.
At the top of my life’s to-do list is to visit the motherland. To walk in the fields of my ancestors.
I have cut myself off from most of my living family. Don’t take this as lamenting, it is far from it. My life is so much more peaceful without the noise of family drama to pollute it. I now stay in “solid” contact with fewer than a dozen family members (all sides combined).
And, after saying that, I find irony in the fact that I would rather communicate with my ancestors through researching them than to actually speak to people connected to me through blood who still walk this planet.
My biggest “finds” in world of my ancestors:
- The newspaper article where my Pawpaw was interviewed regarding the shoemaking craft. His own words, new to me – more precious than gold.
- No Native American ties that I can find immediately.
- Solid links to Scotland that led to my being welcomed into a clan.
There is so much more than that. Civil War relative who died in custody in a fort, the relative who went to court for beating the neighbor with a croquet hammer he brought back from the war overseas, the coal camp fetes. I love painting a mental picture of them and piecing together their lives.
Thoughts and Ponderances 