Our Family's Journey Through Time
I can envision a future where parentage is certain and family lines follow precise genetic markers, not grandma's stories about her strange 3rd cousin once removed that never really seemed to fit in with the rest of the family. Relationship with others will be determined by DNA markers and medical history will be written out with precision and detail.
But for now, let's focus on the people who surround us. The faces and names we remember from childhood. Let us focus on the memories of those who shaped our personalities whether or not they shaped our bodies.
It has always facinated me that lineage was followed through the father's line when in reality, nobody really knew what mom was up to! It's hard for a woman to deny her child when they are literally joined into one person. The father's side had always seemed a little murky to my mind.
I bet there will be a lot of surprises in the future!
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Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about your ancestor and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about your ancestor and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about your ancestor and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
Since I was small there was always conversations about how Aunt Vivian was working on the family history. At the time it didn't make much of an impression. My mother dug in and started adding and enriching Vivian's work, expanding it to include her family as well. Now, in my 60s, I'm starting to finally realize the hard work and dedication these two women put in and the massive amounts of data they have unearthed, without the help of the internet! It is my hope to gather all this information into one place where current and future family members can access it without the endless copying of book upon book upon book. It is a big task, I hope I'm up for it.
Vivian did not have the advantage of the internet for research. When she compiled her information it was through letters to distant family, trips to various counties, and memories from childhood. I, on the other hand, have access to large databases and have been able to locate a lot of new information. It is a work in progress and probably always will be. I know there are typos and mistakes and I'm working on corrections as well as validation.
A lot of my very young life was spent on a staircase listening to the adults' conversations. This is why I think that the stories are what interests me in tracing family history. Of course you have to know who your ancestors actually were, but the ancestor that traded his wife for two oxen is the details that keep me interested and digging for more tidbits. Did grandpa drive for Al Capone? The family moved 26 times?!? My dad was almost lost in a blizzard? Grandma cut the tip of her finger off helping my dad make a wedding gift for my mother? There are so many stories and I love them all.
As of this writing, my mother is fast approaching 92 years of age and I am grabbing every opportunity to gather her memories and stories. I hope to add them to this site.
Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about this descendant and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
George Crandall standing in the back behind Hannah and Arbie who is holding Robert as Cecil and Arthur stand to either side.
Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about this descendant and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
Add your information here about ancestor listed to the right. You can write a short paragraph about this descendant and his or her family. The following text is filler text. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas velit tellus, imperdiet quis lacus.
That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.
We've been researching this family name for over 30 years. I found lots of information in the Archives, but once the internet exploded with genealogy, many more doors have been opened for me to research.
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