First thing yesterday, I got a call to confirm Pumpkin’s visit with the vet today. I was very happy to hear I can put off that visit and they will give her a checkup and vaccinations when we take her for boarding at the Kitty Hilton in a couple of weeks. We live twenty miles out a two-lane and we are getting quite a winter storm as I write this. Friends who have police scanners are warning people to stay in because there are wrecks everywhere. It was quite a relief to know I don’t need to go anywhere when the weather is bad. That is one of the best parts of being retired…the ability to kind of pick and choose where and when I go somewhere.

I spent my day wandering through my family history. One of the coolest things is when you find photos of your ancestors that you’ve never seen…especially when it’s the first time you’ve ever seen an image of that person. That is what I found yesterday when I found this photo of one of my second great grandmothers. This is who we always referred to as Grandma Abels because here she is with her second husband of that last name. 

There are interesting little revelations when you dive into your family tree. You might find a wedding occurring just a couple of days before the birth of the first child. This particular great great grandmother had her first baby out of wedlock. She was my grandma’s grandma and this little bit of information was a closely guarded family secret. One of my great grandmothers found herself a new widow with five little boys under the age of ten. She was only 28 years old.  She moved back home to live with her parents, but she had to do something to help feed and clothe her children. She found “employment” at a local hotel. This could be considered quite scandalous, but this was around 1910. I admire her determination and resourcefulness to care for her babies as best she could. She ended up marrying a young man, six years her junior, who parented her children. They went on to have three more children before she died at the young age of 54 of a heart attack.

It was a rough life in those days. Before the age of official death certificates, deaths were recorded in ledger books. You can scroll down the page and find the cause of death for everyone on the page. You often find child after child who have died of communicable diseases. There are accidents and murders, and strange diagnoses that I have to look up. I find out there are old names for modern diseases. Having worked in medicine all my career, I find that kind of thing sad and fascinating at the same time.

I can see now how my mom was so drawn to genealogy. It’s a treasure hunt and a mystery and sometimes a puzzle. At this point, believe it or not, I have 5,885 names in my tree on Ancestry. And I’m adding more every day. There are hints and I’m slowly weeding through them. I’m trying to follow the direct lines back first. Then I can add more later. It really is a never ending battle.

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“Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.”

Isaiah 30:8 NIV