Tuesday, June 29, 2010

ANCESTORS SPINNING

Yesterday I worked on my side of family tree; tonight on Paul's. So many questions! It's either great or torturous for "mildly" OCD-type personalities. You just want every blank filled in on every person - all the dates, places, kids, parents, grandparents, in-laws, outlaws, back to Adam.

I learned today that my great grandfather was fourteen years old when he enlisted in the Union Army (he was from Mississippi) and his regiment fought at Corinth and Shiloh. He deserted after seven months. I wonder if that teenage boy didn't have his fill of adventure by that time. Or maybe his mama had been looking for him. I know fourteen-year-olds then were probably more mature than many are now, but I can just imagine that he saw and heard things he wished he had never taken part in. His name on the regiment roster (Wisconsin) did not have a state of origin. Maybe that's why they never found him or looked for him. That I know of. Yet.
~~~~~
I searched all over the house tonight looking for the Bible I have with family statistics written in it and finally did find it. I'd written in pencil, so I went over all that with a pen. It isn't legal unless it's in ink. Not that I think I'd ever have to use it for a legal document, but if I did... And the pencil writing had smudged so it was almost illegible in some places.

I do know this: never in this lifetime or anyone else's will there be an end to all the research, recording, organizing, scanning, editing, copying and filing and exchanging of family records. Only God has all that.

Me, about age 4, from Edwina's album, which I'm sure Mama sent back to my dad's family after they divorced. I was eating something and looks as if I had on a little bracelet. There appears to be a water fountain behind me, probably at a city park or the Memphis Zoo. I'd never seen this picture before, either. Wonder who was standing just in front of me - she had a hat on; maybe Goobie - she wore them.

No comments: