Today’s Light of the World feature is to Highlight our hero on social media and just like last year (here) I think those who truly have Christ like attributes would NOT want to be showcased on social media. Especially if they don’t see it in themselves. Thus here is my post for day 10.
Jenna had an assignment in which she was to write an essay answering different questions about a book character or a personal ancestor. She chose the latter and we found an ancestor I knew I had stories for. She needed more words than the three stories combined. As we couldn't answer all the questions accurately we fudged a bit on “what might have been” – it was quite a good essay, but not exact as we have no way of knowing if all the facts were actual – only that much of it was “based on truth”.
When Jenna learned what Day 10 would be she excitedly asked if she could share her essay on facebook. At first I told her that perhaps she shouldn’t as certain family members might take it as truth, but the more I thought about it I wondered how many would take the time to read it especially since "posting s story" seems more inviting to her than having to post it to the "wall".
I have many stories that I have shared throughout this blog. For the most part I have not posted them on facebook - mostly due to lenghth. That’s too much information for facebook in my opinion. And yet my brother would often write lengthy posts - especially during the time that his mother-in-law had COVID. Those I would read - but sometimes would only scan.
The experience that I am now sharing was from a different ancestor and another side than the one we used for Jenna. For facebook I will end up with only one paragraph that explains a journal but not much of a story line. But I will share the story here and send a link to any of those that may be curious enough to want to read more:
Just a brief history to hopefully make
this easier to follow. My great
grandmother had four children. Her only
daughter married and had three children: my dad, his brother and his sister.
Great grandma’s oldest son
married and had six children (three boys and three girls). The eldest
of his children also had six children – five girls and a boy. I will provide the names of four as I am
about to mention the “story” and what
unfolded as a result.
My dad’s sister had four sons. One I will refer to as Skyler. Dad’s cousin had the six children.
Her only son is Brett. He fits somewhat in the middle. The last time I
remember seeing my second cousins was when Heidi was four to six years
old. I had forgotten that dad’s cousin
had also given birth to twins after Heidi. I don’t believe Skyler knows about
Brett or Heidi or any of the living relatives on that side. But I could be wrong. I don’t suppose it matters to the point of
this story.
On March 29 this year was our second
Sunday since the schools shut down and we were on a Stay-at-home order. Skyler had shared a post about great grandma’s
grandfather on a family facebook page.
He sent a Acrobatic link which included pages of Richard’s
journal. Richard is our 3rd
great grandfather.
I did write a brief synopsis at
receiving the journal (here) but did not mention what took place shortly after
that.
Brett has been active on ancestry
and I thought he would be interested in Richard’s journal as
well – though some of it is really hard to read. At the time it did not appear that Brett had
an account on facebook – though I have seen his name quite recently so
must have created an account during the pandemic – I’m
thinking in August. I don’t
know if he’s posted since then.
I am facebook friends with one of my
dad’s cousins – Brett’s
uncle, his mother’s brother. I knew
the names of three of his sisters but had no idea what their married names were
and so went to their uncle’s account to
see if I could possibly find them that way.
I saw that Heidi and I had two fb friends in common –
her uncle and my daughter-in-law.
What? How would my
daughter-in-law know Heidi? Turns out
they had lived in an area that Heidi’s mom had
grown up in and seemed to dislike. I
smile every time I think about her saying “Who wants to
live in [place]” – and here
she has at least two daughters living there.
I mentioned that I’d been searching for her brother as I believed he might be the family historian and told her about Skyler sharing a piece of our 3rd great grandpa’s journal and asked if they might have seen it. Unfortunately I was unable to send the pfd. I asked Skyler if he could email it to her but do not know if Heidi was able to view it. But I have shared other things with her – a photo of Randy and Carrie’s baby, a family photo of our grandparents, great grandparents, and her mom when she was three or four years old. I also shared a photo I have shared on my blog before and our relationship with the Bird family (see here)
The point is I had made a connection
with living relatives which to me is more important than lineage. Not to take away from ancestry or those who
thrive on it. I have shared other
discoveries on my blog as well as my lack of enthusiasm for family history in
the past; I do enjoy maintaining present
and keeping records for posterity so they may hopefully have a better attitude
toward genealogy than do I.
Though I don't share the story of the ancestor himself, I have briefly shared our lineage and the experience of connecting over social media. I don't guess that's showcasing my ancestor - though he has become more than just a name to me. He evidently wrote some poetry in addition to his journal.
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| not all the pages are this hard to read but much of it is |
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