There's a lot of ancestors that were 'foundations of the family,' so to speak. I come from a long, long line, on almost every branch, of strong, patriarchal and matriarchal people. Probably why I'm so resilient and headstrong today.
I think the best way to interpret this prompt is to talk about the foundation of who and what got you started into genealogy. For my Mom, who is sitting right here beside me while I type this -- she says the person that gave her the start into genealogy was my Granduncle Charles.
My Mom had to do a family tree project in junior high and went to Charles for the information for her tree. He already had all of the information and he'd cited his references, too. Charles was a college professor - so he was very thorough about his genealogy research.
Sadly, Mom let a cousin of hers borrow the completed family tree chart for a college project and she never got it back. In the end, that's okay - I'm the family genealogist now and have taken the branches back way further than Charles had them in the 1970's.
It seems to be a LaRue thing to be interested in genealogy as Charles' mother (my Great-Grandmother) and his Grandfather (my Great-Great-Grandfather) were very interested in family tree. In fact, my Great-Grandmother wrote into the Evansville newspaper asking to connect with unknown cousins. She ended up getting correspondence from some out in Kansas that they took a road trip out there to meet!
It wasn't the LaRue side of the family that gave me MY start into genealogy though. This is a story I've told before in several blogs but, considering this is the first prompt of the year, I feel like it would be good to refresh y'all on who and what gave me my start into genealogy.
This beautiful woman right here -- my Great-Grandmother, Anna Elizabeth (Thompson) Sandefur. Born August 18th, 1916 -- she was 76 years old when I came into this world on February 12th, 1993. Affectionately referred to as Nana - she was my babysitter for most of my toddler years and early childhood.
When I was about 5 years old, we had to move her out of her apartment and she moved into my Grandparents house. Unfortunately, that didn't last too long - Nana's Alzheimer's was just progressing and she was getting worse by the day. So we moved her into the nursing home.
After breaking her hip a couple times and being in the hospital for a while - she passed away on October 12th, 2001. I was eight years old. Prior to her passing though, about a year or so before, I had gotten curious to know if she had known any of her Great-Grandparents.
I knew my Dad hadn't met any Great-Grandparents, and my Mom had met three of her Great-Grandparents. My Grandpa had met none of his, and my Grandma knew only one of hers.. but I really was curious if Nana knew any of hers. Unfortunately, because of the Alzheimer's, she couldn't answer it accurately.
My Grandma and I took to doing genealogy together in the genealogy department at my local library - which quickly became one of my favorite places in the world. It didn't take us too long to figure out that all of Nana's Great-Grandparents died prior to 1900 so unfortunately, she didn't get to know any of them.
My Grandma took me out to the Gibson Cemetery a few months into our genealogy and that, too, quickly became one of my favorite places in the world. The feeling you get when you walk up the hill and into the cemetery is indescribable.
Being the final resting place of my 3x, 4x, 5x, and 6x Grandparents -- it's like I get socked in the face by my own ancestors when I arrive. It's like I walk into a very warm embrace. A lot of the tombstones there are old and weathered, in desperate need of some D/2 cleaning which I'm going to work on this spring. (I'm looking at y'all's tombstones, John & Mahala..)
My Great-Grandmother's older sister, Vannie Louise, is in the cemetery. She died at just four years old of membranous croup. My Great-Great-Grandmother, Mary Janella's brother, Sidney Thomas, is there with his wife, Mamie. Janella's twin sister, Camilla, and her husband, Sam, are there as well. Janella's younger sister, Martha Vandelia who died rather young is there.
I definitely owe my Great-Grandmother and the Gibson side of my family for my love of genealogy and family history. The pull I feel to my ancestors is just something I really can't put into adequate enough words. I wish I could. I guess the saying is right - 'there's one in every generation.' That one is me and I'm so very glad it is. I'm so glad genealogy is my life's passion.
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