Ancestors ‘n Junk

(originally posted in my old blog 04/24/2005)
So yesterday My Man and I went to visit my parents. My bi-weekly laundry trip. We also decided to go to a ridiculously tiny hamlet just outside of my town to visit a cemetery. I got a lot of photos of my ancestors’ graves. I was shocked to find myself with tears in my eyes as I stood in front of the gravestone of one set of my 4xg (great great great great) grandparents. I guess it’s just that I’ve been researching these people for months now, and I know a lot about them, but seeing actual gravestones finally made them REAL. It was a really bizarre feeling. I mean, they died in the mid-late 1800s – did I really expect that I ever would have met them? No, of course not. They were just so real. Their daughter is my 3xg grandmother. Her brother died at the Battle Of Gettysburg. I have a 3xgreat granduncle that died in Gettysburg. It blows my mind.
I also saw the graves of one set of great grandparents I never got to know (because they also died before I was born), and even a set of 2xg grandparents. It was a productive day. I just finished inputting the photos into my genealogy program. man, I feel like a giant geek. I don’t care. My hobby is turning into a passion. It’s a project that will probably never end. There’s always a new family to explore or a new mystery to try to unravel. One of my old friends has a passion for names. She would love some of the names I’ve found. I should e-mail her some.