Well ... I decided I should create a separate blog for my family history attempts, musings, stories and whatever else comes along in my brain as a result of my family history research so that I don't clog up the scrapping/stamping blog with all of it. I know, just what I need, THREE blogs to keep up with. But, hey, I'm a multifaceted person, and sometimes I need to wax prosaic about some facet or another, and some facets get more emphasis than others. Therefore ...
Oh, the name. Yeah, "Treasured Branches" is horribly, um, sappy. But I'm not the world's best title-creator. I can write entire brilliant novels and never think of a name for them. I wanted to convey the fact that 1) this is a blog about family history (branches -- family tree ... get it?), and 2) these particular branches are very special to me. I don't just do family history so I can see if I'm related to Charlemagne or William the Conqueror (isn't everyone?). I do it to find out more about the people who lived on this earth before me and who have had a part in creating my genetic makeup. People whose lives were real, people who lived, loved, struggled, celebrated, hoped, dreamed ... all that "sappy" stuff. (Sap is really a perfect word here, because sap is the lifeblood of a tree, and aren't all those things the lifeblood of human beings' emotional lives?)
When I was growing up I was so blessed to have a mom and dad who told me the stories about their childhoods, about their parents, their grandparents, their cousins, aunts and uncles, all the people who were very important in their lives. My grandparents also added threads to this rich tapestry by continuing the stories back beyond what my parents could remember. And even though I have now lost all of my grandparents, I am still blessed to have my parents and an aunt who remember so many things of our family heritage and who are passing these things on to me. And because all these people have told me these stories with so much love and have imparted so much LIFE to the ones who have gone before them and me, I, too, have not only a deep reverence for my ancestors, but I love them, too, even the ones who died long before I was ever born.
So I do family history research to find out more about these very precious and treasured people, to keep their memories alive (even if the only possible way is as a name on a family tree chart), to remind my own son that these people MATTER, their lives COUNTED, whether they were soldiers in the Revolutionary War, players in the Texas Revolution, or just "ordinary" farmers and storekeepers raising their children to love God and be good citizens.
My hope is to tell their stories here, show some of their photos, help some of them come alive. And undoubtedly, knowing me, there will also be a bit of venting about the frustration of the process, as well as celebrating the little victories that will come along the way as I work my very amateur way through the research process.
I know that many, many of my ancestors were Christian people. And that really excites me because I know that someday I really will get to meet them face to face. And I plan to spend a lot of time in Heaven getting to know all about them!
