Thursday, February 26, 2015

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.  

1 comment:

JC said...

Awesome job! Cool finding.