I’ve been working on my family’s genealogy for the past few years. Sometimes it seems like such slow going, but when I look back to entries along the way I’m amazed at the progress I’ve made.  I’m researching both Mama’s and Daddy’s families and then each branch as it goes back from there. As I’ve said before, I am blessed to have known all four of my grandparents for a long time, and three of my great grandparents.

     There are so many things I’ve been told about my great grandparents; or sometimes I just heard it during table talk after a meal. Some of the family members talked about were people I remember. A few were people I don’t remember at all.  The genealogy I’m researching now is people that I’ve maybe heard about, but most of them I have not. I’m learning new things; about family members. I knew that was a possibility, but it is still a surprise sometimes. Some of the surprises are concerning how much land an ancestor owned in the east, the different professions one could have in a lifetime ,and of course how many children of their own or adopted they had. One man had quite a few acres of land, and another had about six children by his wife along with a family of about eight brothers and sisters they adopted who were his wife’s siblings. I think it’s nothing short of amazing that they were able to raise that many more kids than they already had. I haven’t had time to find out, but I wonder if maybe the parents of those eight children got sick or had an accident and died. They seemed to have disappeared at the same time.

I didn’t realize how many of my ancestors served in a war or service of some branch of the military. I’m working on a special project for our family and plan to bring it to the Chandler family reunion next year. A few months ago I stumbled upon two service cards. One was my Daddy’s Daddy, which had his daddy’s (my paternal great granddaddy) signature on it. The other was my Daddy’s maternal granddaddy’s service card. I printed those out for my binder, and for my daddy. Later I got the idea that maybe others in the family would like to see these, too. So I will be paying more attention than I had been to finding those service cards as I go along.

Another surprise to me is how many of my ancestors came from Scotland. I knew about one for sure when I started this. I have found several more that came from there. Sometimes they actually sailed for America from Ireland, England, or somewhere else, when they originally came from Scotland. And then there are the ones who came from Germany. I was pretty sure about one ancestor, but was surprised to find more. I’m finding all kinds of surprises. No telling what I may find next.

My mother-in-law has done extensive genealogy on their families. She has several binders full of information she has compiled. I hope to get over there and copy what she has soon. I would love to look through it, and have a copy I can hand down to our kids one day. For now I’ll get back to the climb through our families tree on my side of the family.

Have a blessed weekend, friends!