Damaris Fish on genealogy

Aunt Betty's birthday - 8 May

I have been working at home - Spring Cleaning, getting stuff ready for a yard sale - a project for the American Cancer Society, and getting ready for an inspection for my apartment. Stuff Stuff Stuff! As I am doing all this, the things I slow down for & take time to read or Really make sure to put where they belong - is genealogy stuff. Clippings, correspondence, notes on slips of paper about family - genealogy clues. I know my family loves me - I especially feel their support as I am working on straightening up around here. (I have been doing more homework than housework and gotten myself in trouble.) I have a short list of things I am particularly keeping an eye out for, but I have been pleasantly surprised at some things that have turned up that I had forgotten were lost. That's a real danger (and tragedy) in genealogy research. In a family where children have died young, maybe lived their whole lives between the decennial census years - if you don't have a family Bible, or a family cemetery section, those children may be missed. If no one talked about them much after they were gone, they may be lost, and then forgotten that they were lost.
Today is my Aunt Betty's birthday. I remember visit her and her family when I was about 18. That visit was very important to me. Looking for lost stuff for kids was a neverending job. I realized I was a lot like her, and that was okay :-) Our families did not live near eachother: we in Florida, they in New Jersey. So I did not know her much, just from stories my parents, and grandmother told me. She was an amazing woman. I just Googled her name, which I have not done for a little while, and learned something new. There is a bench dedicated to her memory in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. That says a lot :-) Mother of the Year, ambulance driver, Girl Scout leader, whole bunch of stuff. I wish I knew her children better, but we have fallen out of touch :-( Maybe I will try to find them on the internet.
Happy Mother's Day! I hope you have a happy mother. I think my Aunt Betty was a happy mother :-D

posted by Damaris Fish @ 10:41 PM