Fenton Missouri
Yep! I'm still here. I still have some places to go and some people to see in my old stomping grounds.
Last night, I had dinner with my cousin Shirley. She is the last member of my mother's generation on her side of the family. After she goes, I'll be in the oldest generation. Fortunately, since Shirley is a lot like my mother and is in better health, she'll prolly outlive me. She is currently 84, but participates in and teaches line dancing. She does water aerobics. She stays active both mentally and physically and that's one of the keys to good health. She has seven children, lots of grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She recently learned how to use a computer and can now email everyone.
After dinner, we went up to her apartment at the retirement center and she showed me a DVD of her being interviewed by a college student doing a gerontology project. She mentioned my mom and I heard some stories I had never heard about them. This brings up a suggestion. Don't wait until your relatives are old to ask them about family.
I never knew much about my paternal grandparents because my father never mentioned them. He only told me one story about his father, nothing about his mother. They both died long before I was born, so I never met them. I never asked his older half sisters about my grandfather either. My grandfather was married twice and my aunts were from the first marriage. They were also descendants of Daniel Boone through their mother. I didn't find out about that until my sister started doing genealogy research.
We've got gobs of relatives on my father's side of the family because his grandfather, Cyrus Freeman, had nineteen children. My sister found one of our Freeman cousins when she was doing her research and we met her back in 2001 when we were on our Roots 2001 tour, my first road trip in my Z3. Prior to that, when we were children we visited Cousin Peg in Grand Tower, Illinois. It must have been one of the Freeman cousins but Sherry and I do not have a clue which one.
We knew more about my mother's family because someone had done some genealogical research on a branch of the family and shared it with us. Since then, my sister has taken all of my mother's ancestors back to Germany. She's pretty much stuck there. Maybe when more churches in Germany start putting records online, she'll find out more.
Now, after knowing next to nothing about my father's family, she has taken his ancestors back to England. The Fitz Randolphs go all the way back to Charlemagne. No big thing since 60 percent of the people in Western Europe are descended from Charlemagne.
I really wish I would have asked my father and his sisters more about the Wilson side of the family. The things they might have told me I'll never know.
Posted by denny at July 23, 2009 04:06 PMOh, this is great history, I can't research ours because of the name changes.
Posted by: Hermit on July 23, 2009 11:55 PMDitto on that comment about asking them (the Early One's) to speak with you now, here, today because after they're gone, all that data disappears forever.
Long ago, circa 1978, before the Net was locked down by commercial-interests, I was able to ascertain my Dad's side emigrated from Sweden to Halifax around 1870; my Mom's side came from County Cork, arriving in Boston around 1852. Both sides indicated they migrated to & settled in Chicago because of Lake Michigan.
If I want more than that now, I have to pay out money to the like of genealogy.com and I'm not going to do that.
Contrast the above with today:
Once, I had 7 Brothers and 2 Sisters; - I know that 4 of my Brothers are dead and I have not heard from one of my Sisters in over 20 years.
Despite my best-effort, I have no contact with my remaining 2 Brothers. Too much tragedy in their life, they choose to remain silent & obscure.
My parents were married in 1946 and stayed married all the way until 1979 when my Dad died; my Mother died two years later.
Of those 4 Brothers who died untimely, one was 6 years old; 2 more died in prison and the other one, the truly-talented musician, died suddenly one night at the age of 33.
I post all of the above to agree with & endorse what Denny said:
INTERVIEW THOSE STILL ALIVE WHILE YOU CAN!
NB: While in broadcasting school in the '70's, I practiced what I preached; I had a steamer trunk full of collected pictures, locks of hair, report-cards, documents, crayon drawings, refrigerator-postings, ribbons, oral-interview tapes, pressed-flowers and even an Annotated Family Bible. A rain came along back around 1998, collapsed the roof and both soaked and fully destroyed everything within that trunk.
I carry on today with but two things:
The love of a Good Woman for over 30 years and an iron-grip that in the end, all will be revealed.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Posted by: DanS on July 23, 2009 11:57 PMWe probably do have some distant relatives, Denny. My dad's family goes back to England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany, along with a great deal of the rest of Western Europe. Found relation to Edward "The Longshanks" and to Robert the Bruce, so I know where my fighting spirit comes from now!
Posted by: Denise on July 24, 2009 01:17 AMDan - Or you could do what my sister did. Check out your ancestry using the Mormons. Look at census records, probate, church, and arrivals through Ellis Island. Sherry had some problems at first because most of my mother's side of the family came in through Nawlins and went up the Mississippi River to Illinois.
Posted by: Denny on July 24, 2009 10:25 AMIt's interesting, too, the stories that will be told to a stranger (such as the interviewer you mentioned), that haven't been heard by the family. Many times when I am delivering Meals on Wheels, one of the folks will start telling me a story that their spouse or kids have never heard.
Considering all of the American military families living in Germany, I bet your sister could enlist some help searching for records there.
Posted by: Jackie D on July 24, 2009 10:51 AMBrilliant idea, Denny. Thanks! Don't have much time left to write what I remember about my grandparents and parents for all the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of the family. I'm a bit of a writer. This should keep me nicely busy in my old age. Your sister was very ingenuous to discover informations. I'll follow her leads. There are French, British and Scottish backgrounds in our past, mixed with a touch of Canadian Natives. Not a bad mixture. It should be fun!
Posted by: Claudia on July 24, 2009 01:37 PMHope it ain't too late for most of you guys to follow Denny's advice. I know that when I drove through Williamsville, IL in the 80's I decided to try checking on my father's family. I know he was born there in 1900 but as soon as I opened the phone book to see if there were any listings for "Jones" I decided it might be a lost cause. ;^)
I do wish I'd gotten together with my brothers when my mother died to see about getting my father's Non-Com sword from the USMC. At least some of them have kept track of family history.
Rob J
One of the things I lost was the Conductor's Hat held by one of the Great-Great Grand-Daughter's of South Carolina's John C. Calhoun.
Her Father, prior to WWII, was a Conductor on the Illinois Central Railroad for over 20 years.
She gifted it to me; she was killed in a freak-accident on I-20 coming home on a Sunday evening. She was 54.
She knew Charleston SC inside out like you would not believe. We would run away together from time to time, simply to explore Low Country SC. Even my Wife would grudgingly ACK that it was a platonic thing that just two history-buff's had an opportunity to do and gave it her blessing.
I sit in my customized rocking chair, my hands folded across my belly, thinking ... feeling what I missed at the last Blownstar ...
Posted by: DanS on July 25, 2009 04:37 AMDanS......
Me too!...I could not make this one but I know both of us missed a great time.
Posted by: dudley1 on July 26, 2009 12:57 PM