Remember The Questions

My favorite hobby is genealogy. I have been doing it for years and it has all been a positive experience. One thing I love most is that people you have never met will help you find info and pass along all their own hard-earned facts, usually for free.

Another thing is, when you meet with the old people, who after all, will know the most about the family, you will meet some of the most fascinating people ever. For me, having grown up in the sixties, with older people thought of as those who hold things back, it was quite a revelation to find that all those old people were marvelous and not that much different than us younger folks.

I mean, the sixties was anti-war. Well, there weren't any more anti-war people than the women who lived through WWI and WWII. Who would have thought it? They were marvelous people and I came away with a deep respect for them and their experiences and knowledge. They remembered everything. I even met people who had known my great-grandmother. They told me so many things about them. Of course, all these people are dead now but I'm proud to have known them.

I considered for a while writing the story of my grandparents. But the problem with old people is that they die and so my main source of information passed away before I had a chance to ask him to help me. His 88 year-old heart just stopped. He is fondly remembered.

So for a while I still was determined to write of my grandparents. So I thought I'd ask the only daughter left, my Aunt Nancy for help. She agreed to help. I wrote some questions. Where did they meet? and other things. I wrote out the questions and then mailed them off and awaited. The letter came back. 1. Yes 2. No 3. Don't remember... I had forgot to copy the questions down! Yes to what? No? What was the question? I didn't feel as if I could write to her again and ask them all over.

I haven't quite given up. Maybe I could go to BC with a tape recorder and tape her story, that would give me a lot of valuable history. But I did learn something...copy down the questions.

Have a good spring forward. Cheers.