Genealogical Musing with Fran

Hi, fellow travelers through time,

I am smiling as I write this, and I want to share this with all of you “older” readers. A little girl is turning ten! The thought was that a little girl who loves to play dress-up might like “stuff” from the past. The old portable phonograph with some 45s and 78s seemed just the ticket, as well as the old pink dial phone! You get the thought here, right?

Well, the absolute puzzlement on her face as to “What are these things and why would I want them?” truly stunned me. Even after I put a record on and the music blared, she just looked puzzled. And you try and explain a dial-up phone. Am I that old? Well, I guess when I can remember our beautiful huge floor model of a phonograph player which required that you crank it up and our first phone where you had to go through an operator, then I guess I answer my own question. Yes, I am that old!

When did it happen? Sixty years old? Sixty-five? Older? When do we realize we are the eldest in the family? When we are treated with deference? It happened this past weekend to me and I have given it quite a bit of thought since.

My paternal grandmother was my ideal. I have only perfect memories of her. Walking to Grandma’s house was always filled with a joyful expectation of what would come. She could cook, bake, sew, do needlework, garden, and most of all tell a great story. The times spent with her were precious. Now I am the eldest in the immediate family, and I don’t think I have the depth to do the job that my grandmother did. The only thing I know about all of this is that I have always had an “old” soul and will endeavor to tell the stories of our discoveries.

As we delve into the past for each name, I hope we are also endeavoring to grasp and record the facts of the era that surrounds that person’s life and times. We do not experience life in a vacuum, and genealogy gives us the opportunity to gather the spirit of our relatives' lives and times.

Oh, by the by, there was something monetary with the birthday card, so all was not a puzzlement.

Continue to enjoy this passion and . . . I hope to see you at the StLGS Family History Conference on 8 April 2017. You can register at www.stlgs.org/.

Happy hunting,

Fran