No, not a true tree, but the best tree of all--my family tree! I have found a time portal in my computer, and I often wander off there for days on end. And the last few days have been most informative.
If I have it right, I may be descended from lords and ladies and perhaps even a king! Now, if you happen to come from a long line of what you think of as plain brown wrappers, that's news!
But, this blog comes with a warning: Do not laugh at me (or any other genealogy nut for that matter) as your scorn may come back as a curse. You see, that very thing happened to me. I remember being a callow sixteen-year-old, and being coerced by my history-buff father to type his notes for a speech at the local history center (he was president of these fact gatherers.) He was not a professor, or historian by trade, or a genealogist of note, but he had the fire. He cursed me, by telling me that someday I would be interested in what I then thought was dry ol' history. He so wanted to know who we descended from, all the details. And when he cursed me, I laughed. (Do not laugh at the curse, I can tell you from experience that that only exacerbates the power of the incantation.)
None of this came back to haunt me until I was about 56. Through a series of good fortune I was able to retire about that time, and that is when the curse kicked in. I was overwhelmed with wanting to find our roots. I knew we were pretty much Scots Irish with a dash of the Brits thrown in. And so the search began in earnest.
I sat at my computer until 4 in the morning gleaning what I could from census reports online, just using my library card. And when I had a framework, a mere family skeleton as it were, I was ready for the big time--Ancestry.com.
This will be a time-consuming, long haul for most of us. But, if you truly have been cursed, all the data-gathering, hair-pulling, coffee-filled hours will be worth it. You will see a tiny leaf, a clue as they tell you in their Ancestry commercial. If you did not have the fever before, you will get it immediately. You see, my very nature is one of the curious person. I could never quit asking why or who in situations that demanded answers. I was an absolute Columbo about fact-gathering. So, I guess I was a sitting duck for the curse. And that tiny green leaf sealed my fate.
I wish I could tell you how many hours have been used in pursuing my ancestors. I can tell you that dusting and mopping are not as important as they used to be. Cooking is often an ordeal one endures just to get the strength to be at the keyboard again. Reading is still a passion, but even then I often find myself reading stories of history. The obsession is complete. Rarely a day goes by without some research of some obscure town or factoid. But, it is very exciting--that is the great part of the curse. You will be rewarded with knowing where your people lived, what they endured, how good or bad they were. All this went into making me who I am. And when you reach far enough back, it clarifies the fact that we are all on the same journey. We may come at it from different roads, speak of it in different languages, but it is the journey of life.
I urge you to undertake a little research. Find out who is in your family tree and track down their stories. After all, “Our stories make us who we are. And each story has its own purpose and its own reward. Each story rings true and each story is worthy of the ages. There is no such thing as an insignificant life.”
Quote by Laurence Overmire, New York Minute: An Actor's Memoir