Family trees or genealogy is an important project that we should all have. It is something we pass down to our descendants, to our grandchildren and theirs.
What do you remember about your childhood? Did something very special happen to you? Did you receive any awards or did you do a good deed? Were you in articles in the newspapers? What kinds of things do you like? What kind of christmas do you remember growing up? What do you remember about your parents? Do you remember your grandmothers and grandfathers? These are what we call our memories, and when we are gone, so are they. Would you have liked to know about your great great grandparents? How did they live? What did they do for entertainment? Could they sing? Could they play instruments? Were they story tellers? Ah yes, you need to write down notes, on what you can remember. I have a book, well I have divided my book into three parts as of now. grin. In my Cormier book, I have written down the names of the ancestors, these ancestors were part of my Cormier line and part of my late husbands.
In the book , before my husband passed away and when I first began my genealogy in 1976, my husband would share some stories of when he was young, for instance when he was around seventeen, his father bought him his first car, it was a 1936 Ford with a running board on the side. Well my husband was very proud of his new car, and he drove it, but my father in law would be looking out the window to wait for him to return home. One day he said to my husband" Hey Gerry, how come you don't drive into the driveway and always park in the road? " Gerry didn't want to tell him, he had never driven it in the yard yet he always parked on the street. My father in law continued " Well if you do not park that car in our driveway you lose it." Well , my Gerry said to me" You can be sure I parked it in the driveway from then on."
I continued writing in my book, kinds of cars he had, what kind of jobs he worked at and so on. Next came my son, I wrote about when he was born, and cute things he did while growing up. One day when he was around three, we lived on a busy street and I had put him outdoors in our back yard, well the back yard wasn't good enough for him, he decided he needed to sweep the busy road, well I ran and got him off the road and then I bought him a little harness. No more sweeping the road for him. And then he was into Karate, and one day he came home and he had his baseball cap over his eyes and he was sneaking up the stairs I said" Come here! He came over and I pulled the cap off his eyes , yep he had this one huge black eye. Now when he reads the book he will laugh at it.
Do you understand what I mean? I wrote about my grandchildren and when they would visit, I would put the date and the cute things they did.
In my maiden name book, I have all about my parents and what I remember about my grandparents and stories Mom told me. They are all in my books.
Old photos with descriptions about who they were and dates are so very important too. I came across many old photos when my inlaws passed away, with no names .Who were they???? Very very important to write who they were.
Now changing a subject a bit, a few days ago a friend and I went to the Acadian Library and I was in heaven. Grin. Anyway I found a book on D'Abbadie de Saint Castin, it is in french but I am so pleased with it, and it speaks of Madockawando who is the Native American Chief who is among many ancestors of some Acadians. If your line branches into Anastasie D'Abbadie de Saint Castin for instance then she was his grandaughter. I began reading the book and I am enjoying it.
And also while researching your ancestors you might come across some royal blood, the D'Abbadie ancestors were nobles and judges and lawyers, now we are talking about the years in the 1600s, so that is going back quite far. And again you might come across some scoundrels , pirates, crooks, no matter what you turn up, you cannot change what happened, it is all history. Jean Serreau dit St Aubin who is in my line, caught his wife fooling around with the neighbor ,who I believe was a swede and he hit him and killed him. Again this was back in the 1600s or so. This must have been quite a scandal back then, if we compare it to today. Today it would still be a scandal. But it happened and is part of history. Do not hide what happened, our grandparents and theirs probably hid lots of stuff, we need to tell the truth and as it is. If our ancestors commited a crime, they did it, it happened not to be hidden. What they did is not our fault but we need to remember without them no matter who they were, we would not be here today.And there is nobody perfect in this world, we all make mistakes and we all have to live with it. So get out your pen and paper or computer and start writing down things and be part of history, share with the future generations that will follow us.
Thanks for the lovely visit, and do come again.
Have a great day
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