Day 26 - 26th January 2012 - Looking Through the Past

Cooler this morning -1.1. Larry was up and had Lexi out and said it was windy and cold, so the temperature will probably drop. I sent them back to bed, I like my morning time alone and they don't really like to get up that early unless he's working. Took creamcheese out to soften so I guess I'll whip him up a cheesecake for his birthday this week. This morning it's going to be spent working on my report for a while, laundry and I'll get  a turkey soup underway. I think this afternoon, Larry and I will go up to the Hall and set the tables, etc. up for the breakfast on Sunday. It's our turn to work this Sunday. We are so fortunate - there are 3 "teams" so we only had to work every third month. In volunteer organizations it's a great thing to have enough people to be able to do that. Our breakfast is from 8am - 11am and is a full meal if you've never been, try it out.

Another great event going on next month is the Black Loyalist Heritage Society Annual Chocolate Festival and the Floral Presentation by Neville McKay on 2 Feb from 1-3pm. I see from the posters that seating is limited so call the girls at the office about tickets. I think you will enjoy the afternoon, I know I have in the past.

I spend a lot of time looking through birth, marriage and death records, but these days it's usually for other people and their ancestors not my own. The report I'm working on is a branch of my own family tree. Other than just dates and places lots of info can be gleamed from those records. For instance I discovered that my gggrandfather could not read/write, he signed the delayed birth registration for his son with his "mark" an X. My greatgrandmother died from breast cancer, this I knew but not that she had only been diagnosed 6 months before and had surgery.  I discovered that from her death certificate in 1951. There were deaths from TB, one small child [age 4] died of appendicitis. Some of these we rarely hear about anymore. In many ways we have made great strides in medical research.  Many records always give us an occupation, in my family most were fisherman, not unusual in a small coastal community, or a religion and ethnic background ( I have lots of Scottish, English, German and Irish roots). All these little tidbits of information help us envision who those ancestors that we never met were. Photos of course are wonderful but sometimes not available so the more we can find out from reading other than dates the more we will know about them and perhaps our selves.

Now some of you may think that my photos are rather morbid today, however, I know others will not. Cemeteries are a great source of information. Not only that, but look at the craftsmanship of the stones especially the very old ones, newer ones are done with more modern technology, but the older ones, some of those were actually done by hand. This is the cemetery not far up the road from us, one set of my grandparents rest here, and I think it's a nice little country setting that they would have enjoyed. I did stop today for a minute and see them, and caught them up on a few things.

My Grandfather R. probably took on my first cemetery visit and told me all about the relatives who were buried there, what they were like and what they did. I remember those afternoons fondly.

So if you've got a few minutes, stop and visit a relative or a friend, no matter where they maybe.