I’m a poor historian. This should be made perfectly clear up front.
But I dabble in Ancestry.com anyway, making a mess of my Family Tree. It’s an error-ridden Gordian knot that would make my dear, late Uncle Wendell cringe.
Tracking the ancestors
Uncle Wendell had compiled an immaculate and extensive family tree before he shuffled off this mortal coil. One that makes any dabbling I do perfectly useless.
But I still enjoy clicking through all the hints and stumbling onto old photos and documents of long gone, and in some cases still living, relatives.
Like these folks…
And of course, I wonder if one day a long-hidden sibling or relative will link up to me through my DNA. Some dramatic gothic tale of some sort or another. But so far that hasn’t been the case.
DNA Disappointment
I must admit my DNA was a tab disappointing. I was hoping for an unexpected dash of THIS or a surprising smidgen of THAT. But it basically boils down to a yawn-worthy…
28% England and Northwestern Europe
20% Ireland
19% Germanic Europe
16% Scotland
12% Norway
5% Sweden
I think we can all admit there’s a decided lack of spice in that mix.
But paging through my distant 4th to 6th cousins or my 6th to 8th I sometimes stumble upon the face of someone who doesn’t seem so boring. A person whose twinkle in the eye or grin on the face makes me think they probably have an interesting story to tell.
I can only imagine when they run across my photo they’re a bit disappointed.
And your point is?
The point of this post?
Well, to be perfectly honest there really isn’t one. I was reviewing a hint earlier about my great, great grandmother (I believe, I told you, I’m NOT at all good at this stuff) Barbara Ammann Bragaw. It was her obituary on page three of the Washington, DC newspaper Evening Star on February 3,1934.
Here it is…
And I spotted another odd and compelling story on the same page that made me think, “I ought to write something about that.” But when I opened up WordPress to do just that I wrote THIS instead.
I will probably still post that other story sometime. It’s really just an oddity. Not much to it. And if I do I will link to it here. But otherwise I suppose that’s all I’ve got for now.
If you’ve ever thought about working on your family tree I can recommend it. Even if you’re as terrible at it is I am it’s interesting and you’ll get a lot out of it.
And who knows, maybe it turns out that it’s YOU, dear reader, who has the the gothic tale of a long lost sibling or a parent who is not a bio parent. Think of the delicious drama.
