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Wayside_Wisdom Heard Along the Way
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DIGGING UP ANCESTORS
Genealogy is the fine art of trying to prove that everybody came from someplace and had two parents! Doing genealogy is a life-long task. You’re never finished solving the mysteries of "who was it?" and constructing your family tree. When you successfully complete one search, you discover there are additional generations of your personal human jigsaw puzzle begging to be studied! A genealogist is a person who tries to uncover facts to prove that everybody came from someplace and had two parents. There are professional genealogists and hobbyists. Professionals are the folks who know what they are doing and make their living researching the ancestors of other people. They have many resources available to consult in attempting to build a family tree. There are many thick, "smart" reference books for ancestor-hunters and much, highly detailed information on the World-wide Web. Many of the genealogical resources are the work of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) for whom it is a religious responsibility to identify at least 5 generations of their personal ancestors. Hobbyists are people like us. In some of our time, freed by retirement, we enjoy dabbling about among family documents and memories shared by older relatives, trying to discover our personal patriarchs and matriarchs. We dig for data in libraries, cemeteries, historical museums, old letters and photos. Legal documents, centuries’ old census data and ship’s passenger lists yield fascinating glimpses into the adventures and hardships of our forebears. We search diligently for the successful branches of our family trees, and gather interesting stories about all the others! In this process, we have discovered that the essential building blocks of a family tree are questions, questions and more questions. For example, most of us are fortunate enough to know who are parents are. They’re the folks who seemed so utterly old-fashioned and out of touch when we were thirteen! If we are really blessed, we even know who our grandparents are. They’re the ones who tell such great stories, let us have a cookie before dinner and usually take our side when our parents say "No." Often we can remember where our parents and grandparents have lived. If we happen to forget such an important detail, one of the grandparents is sure to tell a funny story that will remind us. But what about our grandparents’ parents? And their parents before them? And Great-Aunt Sal who is never mentioned by anybody in the family? Are we all related through Adam and Eve? But there are lots and lots of people between them and us! Did they all have two parents and come from someplace? Those are the folks that genealogy is about! Genealogists want to find the answers to all those questions - and many more! How many children did my Great-Aunt Minnie have? Was the son of Horace, my second cousin once-removed, really a horse-thief? How did Grandpa’s brother Bud make all his money? Was my distant cousin Jemima Jones related to anybody famous, like Captain John Paul or the pancake lady? How did Great-great-great-great Grandma Susannah raise eight children by herself in the Ohio wilderness? Where did Uncle Ike die - and where is he buried? Was he really so crooked they screwed him into the ground? God’s reaction to the Tower of Bable greatly complicated the work of ancestor-seekers! Since that fiasco of human arrogance, a person’s forebears can come from anywhere in the world by various modes of transport. Perhaps they came from Germany and English-speaking tongues converted the name from "Niederaurer" to "Nedrow." Or from Ireland, and were one of the hundreds - perhaps thousands - of "Patrick O’Malley’s" who entered the U.S. at Ellis Island. French names, listed on ship’s passenger lists, often bore little resemblance to their original and proper spelling. Wives and children were rarely listed by name, appearing on very early census records as "wife," "son," or "daughter." The maiden name of a woman disappeared after her marriage unless she came from a very prominent family! She was either her father’s daughter, her husband’s wife, or her children’s mother, but seldom a real person. That makes tracing her ancestry quite a challenge! But digging up ancestors is fun. What was it like for my Grandfather to be left with two small daughters and a newborn baby when his wife died in childbirth at 26? Which of three conflicting stories should I believe about where my great-grandfather was born? Is he really the only known exception to the two-parent rule? How did Great-Aunt Cora and her husband travel from Illinois to California in the late 1800's? How long did it take? Why on earth did my great-great- grandmother’s family move from Ohio to Illinois? What was the disturbance that caused her husband’s shooting death in his forties? Who were the parents of your Great-great-great-grandmother Mary? How did your ancestors’ families cope with the deaths of four of their children before the age of six? Did they ever get over their grief for a son who disappeared without a trace in the Civil War? What adventures did your immigrant ancestor and his family have traveling from Germany to America with their six children, the seventh born on ship-board? Were your German forebears really of a royal family? So, we continue to dig for ancestors, uncovering exciting new questions with each discovered fact! How about you? Have you dug up any ancestors lately? 11/30/2006 - mshr Previous Index of Stories Next
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