Spring!

Time to change the blog again. Spring is here! I'll work on the blog this weekend.....maybe. Doing some genealogy again, for a change. I've only got just so much time, people! LOL! My love of genealogy gets in the way of my love for digi-scrapping and my love of living a comfortable life gets in the way of both!

Yeah, I have to work a full time job, sometimes 2 jobs, to be able to take care of myself and my family. Just like a lot of you. So my "spare" time has to be divided up between my favorite pasttimes. Genealogy won this week. But I love the research involved and I sometimes jump up and do the "Happy Dance" when people I'm looking for pop up and say "Here I am!" Then I'm on the phone saying, "Mom! Guess what I found!" She's the one who got me started in genealogy and she's the only one who still gets as excited as I do.

Well, almost as excited as I. LOL! I think she's a little jealous. When she was researching our family tree, she had to do it all in her own handwriting, make umpteen trips to the local libraries as well as the archives in Washington, D.C. She had to write letters then wait weeks for them to be answered or visit all the relatives and interview them. (Thanks, Mom for passing that all along to me!) Now, in the "modern" age of computers, I can find a ton of things out from my comfy chair, sitting in my comfy room with a couple of grandbabies on my lap. (Thank you, Bill Gates and Ancestry.com)

Researching my family tree has given me a better understanding of time and of family. In genealogy, the American Civil War wasn't that long ago. My grandfather was born in 1881, just 16 years after General Lee surrendered to General Grant and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Granted, my grandfather was in his 40's when my dad was born and my dad was nearly as old as I was when I became a grandmother when he had me. But still, it doesn't seem like it's that long ago when you think of who in your family was actually alive then. By researching each and every one of them, they become alive in my mind and I can see them as well as I can see my grandparents. I know what they did for a living, where they lived, who their neighbors were. Sometimes, you even know which ones were rascals, which ones were lazy and which ones worked themselves to the bone to provide for their families.

You know that someday in the future, someone's going to want to know who their ancestors are. What will YOUR descendants find out about YOU?