My family history story
is one that started very young and yet too late. As a child, I loved to listen
to the stories my Grandparents would tell. In fourth grade, I took my maternal
grandfather with his WWII Navy war stories as my show and tell. I didn't know
it, but I was bit by the genealogy bug. When my maternal Grandfather was sick
and I was away in college, I dreamt of having the chance to interview him one
last time and get it on video. After he passed away, life rolled on. I
graduated college, got married and then another sickness. This time it was
grandma. It was pancreatic cancer, stage 4. In her favorite recliner, still in
her pajamas, Grandma struggled through reading a storybook on tape to preserve
her voice and sickly image. I know now, no one really wants to be remembered
that way; but she knew it meant the world to me and never mentioned she'd
rather not be on video. After that, I have done what I could when time would
allow it.
Fast forward to the
present, 10 years after Grandpa's passing and I finally have a good start at my
family history. A great uncle shared a wealth of information on my paternal lineage;
a cousin thrice removed shared great detail on my husband’s mother’s side. I have
some great family stories from my mother and her 8 siblings, and a few great aunts
and uncles left whose brains must be picked before the Alzheimers steals their memories
from them and us too. I have found many census records and located some family
treasures within the family.
But my story isn’t complete.
The family treasures have led to more questions, the yearning for more answers.
Some online records seem to indicate perhaps the dry goods store my maternal grandfather’s
family owned, whose ledger books are still held by my mother, might have been
passed down from the generation before where we thought it began. The notes in
those ledger books are priceless. Hand written in the margin “family – will never
pay.” Who are these mysterious “family” members? How are they connected? Where
do they all fit in?
Oh, if only I had unlimited time and resources!
