Ancestry spins my head....

A long time ago, I was entrusted with

information about our family, by my

Aunt who did so much research on

 our family (my father's...her brother)  side.

This was before computers and Ancestry.com.

It was during the time of talking to each relative

who was still alive ... be it siblings or aunts

uncles. And writing to city halls and states.

And coming up with papers from her mother.

Somewhere there is about a 20 page diary

from our grandmother, from before she got

married to after the children were born.

Also she shared many pictures.. So when

there was a book put out by the town that

my father was born.. and there was no mention

of my family... I was ....well.. pissed off.  I wrote

the ladies who wrote the book, and told them

how important my grandfather, uncle and etc.

were to the town. The island... My grandfather

had the first Ford dealership in the area. He ran

a horse and buggy taxi before there were cars.

Taking people from one side of the island to the

other, to meet the ferry which took the people

to the main land.  He had I think it was the second

store on the island.. and delivered groceries by

horse and buggy to the summer residents. And

took them to the ferry and back.  Later adding

a gas station and then the dealership. Which

my uncle took over.  My grandfather with two

other gentlemen, built and started the movie

theater that is there.. Which is now a small shopping

mall.

I asked my cousin who is the daughter of the uncle,

to help out in this outrage of omission of our family.

And found out that when her father passed away, that

his wife (her mother had passed away years ago) then

passed away... and no one knows what happen to all

the family history he had.  So I have been sharing with

her.  Also my aunt's daughter, received all the paper work

of  the family history, that her mother had worked so hard

on.  She has shared some with Ancestry.com. And some

with us... With promise of more to come.

After sending all I had to my uncle's daughter, I was done.

Let the younger ones carry it on.. But then.. my oldest

daughter decided she too, would like to get the history

of the family for her family.  So we worked on it over the

weekend.. Copying pictures and papers and emailing

them to her.. finding more things and adding to it. She

found a source on line.. and we had to smile as that

source was my aunt's daughter. So the circle has come

full circle...  Which is wonderful.

Then I got to thinking.. about the background stories I

had heard over the years... some from my dad, some

from my aunt.. some I saw... And thought I should write

this all down. Because one of our sources ... my other

uncle's son, has beginning dementia.. and we are about

to lose that information..  And while I have shared my

pictures and paper work.. there are the stories. So I

am working on that. But after awhile, your head hurts

with all the information and you don't want to leave any

thing out. So my head spins.

By the way, one of the two coolest things I have copies of

is 1. the citizenship paper for my great grandfather when

he came here from Sweden.  2. A letter written by my

great grandfather (on my mother's side) who was Chief

of Police for Newport, R.I.  to  my grandfather (on my

father's side) asking him to come in to the court house

on a certain date, to be a witness, and talk to him, the

day before he appears to testify.