I feel like I’m in the middle of a Christmas story

Anyone who has stopped by here from time to time may recall how much I enjoy Christmas.  I chose my blog design based on that fact and the blog design isn’t likely to change.  I collect Christmas videos.  I have 195 of them right now.  I can’t say that I watch any given number in a week or even a month, but there are enough there to choose from when I get a mind to do it.  With all the knitting I do, I am in the process of Christmas most of the time, in one way or another.

But . . . I have never felt so in the middle of a Christmas story as I have since I jumped into the deep end of the genealogical research I’ve been doing.

I noticed it yesterday as I started taking down the names of ancestors whose graves GN and I plan to visit soon.

The Gram family tree is dotted with Mary’s and Joseph’s and Nicholas’ in several different languages and generations.  I ran across a few more today.  Some died old, and some died very young.  Every cemetery we need to visit has several of each.

Some of the Joseph’s married Mary’s.  Some of the Mary’s married Nicholas’.  Some of the non-Joseph’s and non-Mary’s and non-Nicholas’ named their children Joseph and/or Mary, and/or Nicholas.  One of the Mary’s died on December 25th . . . a long time ago.

Makes me wonder if I should be taking flowers to the cemeteries, or gold, frankincense, and myrrh . . . or candy canes.

They changed the name of the cemetery . . .

I must admit, I always loved scavenger hunts.  Looking for my ancestors is no different.  I love the hunt.  I love the work.  I love the research.  Despite the twists and turns, the misspellings, the marriages, the moves, the immigrations, the maiden names, etc., I feel a sense of accomplishment when I actually find something that I know with certainty belongs to my history.

I discovered a piece of information that I’m very grateful to have discovered before GN and I got on the road again.  Some of my relatives are buried in a cemetery that has undergone a name change since they were interred.  Good to know . . . or I’d have to be knocking on doors in that little town asking who moved the cemetery and where they put my family.  The cemetery name change means the church underwent the same change as well.  AND that means my mother (Gr8) got married in the same church as some of the great-greats, despite the historical records showing different information.

I like that.

What I like the most, though, is telling stories to my mother that she didn’t know and introducing her to great-greats – even if only in names.  So far, I have traced her family back four generations beyond her mom and dad.

In addition to telling stories to my mother, I can share those stories with Goodnight and show her how deep the roots are.  It may help her get through the rest of her ‘Julys’ a bit more comfortably.

GN and I are planning a longer road trip in the not to distant future.  We can’t do this one in a day because it’s a much longer drive.  There is a there is a heritage festival we’re planning to attend and it’s in the vicinity of some of the places where the family tree has rooted.  I’m busy printing maps of the little towns GN and I need to visit and the locations of their respective cemeteries, (there are four.)  The visits will happen at some point this summer, but I want to do all the work ahead of time that I possibly can.  I just want to take enough flowers . . .