My ancestors are still on my mind today after writing yesterday's blog. So I was just viewing my family tree on Ancestry.com a few moments again. This year, I have been working to trace my family's heritage and have been quite successful using Ancestry's tools. It has been a rewarding experience for me and I highly recommend it.
I find it completely fascinating that I can see the names of my ancestors dating back to the 1700s. I haven't gone further than that yet, but that is far enough to thrill me. I can see when my brave family members came to this unknown place called America from various countries in Europe including Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland and England. I'm not surprised by the countries. Look at me and you know I am German. I had already heard that I was also Irish, English, Scotch and even a little Native American. But to see the names and the places is wonderful.
It is remarkable though, to note, that my family on BOTH sides came to America, settled in one place and stayed there for many generations. I am not finding my relatives in covered wagons moving west to find gold or to Kansas to raise wheat. No, it is a common scenario in my family ... born in a small town and die in the same small town or just a few towns away. My mother's family lived in rural Pennsylvania; my father's family lived in rural Virginia.
For generations, many of my ancestors lived on the same street or rural route as other family members -- or even their future spouses. On Ancestry.com, I can even see the census rosters listing the name of my great aunt, and then a few entries away the name of her future husband, from the time she was about three years old. They lived only a couple of farms away from each other and were obviously destined to be together. Amazing to discover!
As I've said, this small town scenario happened on both sides of my family, but the cycle changed when both sets of my grandparents moved to Washington, D.C. to build new lives in the 1920s. Thank goodness, both chose homes in the same school district before having their families! My parents would attend the same schools and eventually meet as teenagers on a streetcar following a high school basketball game.
A very good thing, if you ask me!
By the way, all of this explains something about me. I have lived in the same county in Maryland my entire life. I even lived down the street from, and then eventually next door to, my parents and the home where I grew up. Even now, I am only about a half hour away from where I spent my childhood and most of my adulthood too. I guess I, like my ancestors, don't feel inclined to move my covered wagon very far from home.
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