I want to make it clear that at no time during this undertaking was I intending to research our family histories. Luckily, we have family members who've already done that for us. No, this project of mine is all about organization*.
We have piles of handwritten family trees, CDs of ancient family photos and a few high school projects in our possession and it's time to get it all sorted out. It's been pretty easy and fun so far. I'm hugely anal when it comes to organization, so I'm definitely whipping it all into shape quickly. I can see how it could be a never-ending project though. There's always one more photograph to find, one more maiden name to locate... To my naysayers who have already told me this week that I'm nuts for taking this on right before the baby arrives I say: Nonsense! I'll be thrilled if she interrupts me and I can't pick this up again for a few years. This project just happens to be a perfect match for my insane extra energy right now and my need to get my mind off of the last couple of weeks of this pregnancy!
Sorry, I digress...
This project involves photos, mainly because my Dad's sisters provided two CDs of over 300 photos for each of the grandkids a couple of years ago, including ancient photos of people with long beards, high-collars, broaches and hats. (Apparently, these people are my relatives.) We've got a binder going with personal info sheets for each person (vocations, residences, memberships) and have included plastic photo pages for some of these photos. Voila! A photographic family tree. It's pretty darn cool.
Jackson got stuck on this photo of my Mom this morning and insisted that it was me when I asked him who he saw:
[My Mom, age 8]After a bit of back-and-forth bantering with my two-year-old about how it was Grama and NOT Mommy in the photo (he remains unconvinced), I thought I'd dig through my own childhood photos. I have always been told that I look like my Mom, after all. Here's what I found:
[Me, age 8]Okay. I can see Jackson's point now.
Back to the family trees. Nap time for the Kid only lasts so long and I'm excited to get all of this stuff collated!
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* I did discover, however, a common name on both sides of my parents' histories that goes way back to the early 1800s in Ireland. It's very tempting to dig in to find out how connected we all are, but at the same time, I'm not sure I want to know. We've been joking all day about all of our unions being null and void if this connection between my parents' families is too close. Do we really need to know that?
4 comments:
You DO look like your mom!
The likeness is *astonishing*! Wow!
Bully for you keeping yourself busy. I get exhuasted just reading about everything you are accomplishing these days!
A while back in the Hilton/Hylton family tree of my grandmother... we discovered that an uncle married his niece, and then one of their children married a cousin. Wasn't so odd back then I guess - but really, no, you probably don't need to know that! ;)
Amazing resemblance between you and your mother!
Yay nesting!!!
It's wonderful to be able to give children a history and a context (that said, my own family tree hstuff was put on hold 12 months ago and needs to be picked up again!)
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