Hey Mom… ok, so last week I told you about our 3x’s Great Uncle David. That’s where I started, and I have a lot more info on them.

First though….did you know that Dad’s related to half of North Carolina? I kid you not.  We may dominate a lot of the graveyards in Oxford County up here, but, down there if ya spit you’ll hit a cousin.

Last week Lex and I were out on the porch and she was saying how cool it is to hear Dad talk about his ancestors like we’ve just always known this stuff. Oh yeah…well…”my Great Great Grandfather fought and died in the civil war.” Yup. And two of that ancestors brothers were captured at Gettysburg – get this, one of their names was THEOPHOLIS, and he ended up becoming a big deal in the Southern Baptist church in that area back then. He was a preacher.

We’ve made sure those little Granddaughters of yours know where they come from, no worries there. My feeling is that if they know where they come from, they can go anywhere they want and  know inside them pumps the blood of a proud, old heritage going back hundreds and hundreds of years, and on both sides of the border.

It was easy-peasy piecing it all together. All I had to do was go on this forum back 10 years or so ago now, and say “does anyone have any info on blah blah blah”…and poof…whole bunch of cousins popped up. AND they’d done all the work already, all I had to do was tie in our bunch to the tree they’d already been growing.

There are so many tales to tell.

They all stem back to one James who landed in Jamestown Virginia in 1687. He was a bonded servant who’d immigrated from Wales. I guess that was one way many young men came over. They bonded themselves to some rich dude, and spent the next decade or so working for him. In time they paid off their debt and with the money they made they could marry, buy land, and settle down in a new world. Gave them opportunities they could never find back at home.

Ok, so more on that some other time. I should go now I suppose, Irish is chomping at the bit to go for her walk, and I promised her last night a good and long one.

I love you, and miss you and Grandma so much…we all do. Wish the girls had gotten to know you. And I think that younger one of Lex’s takes after Grandma… I doubt she’s ever been embarrassed, and she certainly does speak her mind.

Till next week,

PS. Met a girl last night whose Mom died in much the same way as you…but she never had a chance to say goodbye, and I think maybe it still haunts her. But I told her that she didn’t have to say goodbye, as she could talk to her whenever she wanted…and that she’d be listen’. She may not be able to always communicate back, but she’d be listenin’ just the same… A Mom can always hear the voice of her child…regardless of how far away they may be.

Thanx Mom for teaching us that.