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"For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I want you to:
1) Tell us how your family members (parents, children, grandchildren, spouse, siblings, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc.) react to your genealogy
2) Do you have any funny stories about your family members' interest in or with genealogy? Tell us!"
Wow, Randy! This could potentially open a can of worms in my
family! [Tee-hee]
My husband, bless his little ol’ pea-picking heart… he loves
me enough to let me puruse whatever my heart desires. And he knows that when I “get
on a research roll” I may be seated at my desk for many, many hours at a time.
[I’ve been known more than once to pull an “all-nighter”.]
So what, you say?
Well, he’s more than tolerant. You see, my desk sits in a
corner of the bedroom where we sleep! I usually operate with the ceiling light
on…once he goes to bed, I drop down to just the desk lamp. I do declare… this
is true love and sacrifice!
When I go cemetery hunting, he is there by my side.
He’ll even help in lugging around my equipment and cameras!
And he praises me loudly when I find something new for his
family tree and genealogy. But he would rather I do the leg-work, and simply
hand him the final report. Nice and neat.
My parents love it that I do the research! Each week when I
wend my way over to visit them, the first thing my Dad asks is “What have you
been working on lately?”
Every time I find something new, I bring them a copy.
Document; photograph; story; etc.
My siblings…my sister has some interest. So long as I don’t
include things regarding her in my blog… she’s keen on learning more about our
ancestors. However, when I start talking about great-aunts, great-uncles, and
such…the interest wanes. Neither of my brothers show any interest whatsoever.
It takes a huge act to get either of them to attend a family reunion [we hold
then biennially].
I have no nieces or nephews who are interested.
To date… none of my children appear to have any interest.
Although they don’t mind listening to me tell about our ancestors. And want
copies of what I’ve done to date on their ancestors. But none are interested in
doing any research for themselves.
The grandchildren? The oldest shows no interest yet, and the
youngest are too young. But I have plans!!! [Tee-hee] Oh yes… I have plans!
Funny stories? Well, probably many if I stop to think about it, but the funniest that comes to mind is a cousin who a few years ago was “assisting” me by telling me important dates and names in her immediate family. When out of the blue, she looks me straight in the eye and announces, “You know that our family name is spelled B-E-A-N-E, and wherever you got this stuff about it being spelled any other way is just wrong! It’s just wrong to say it was ever spelled any other way!” [This from a cousin who actually knew our grandfather personally – he died 5 years before my birth – and knew that he spelled his name without the ‘e’ on the end. Simply B-E-A-N.]
When I told her I could show her documents that the name
originated without the “e”, she went on to inform me that they must be false
documents. This she did in a spiteful, loud, superior voice, to try to make me
look less than what I am in front of many family members.
Two years later I presented her with a copy of her mother’s
birth certificate. [Naughty me…I did this in the presence of several family
members.] And there, with absolute horror on her face, she found her mother was
given the surname “B-E-A-N”. She was missing that haughty little “e”.
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