Lifelines...

                                                              Lifelines...


  So many things connect one person to another, but one of the strongest connections can be family history. With this connection comes a link to the past, as well as to the future. A shared family history can bring to life inherited traits, similar interests, and forge a bond with family members from past generations.

  Twelve years ago I began a quest to search out connections to my maternal and paternal roots. I spent hours at the local library,on the Internet, and scoured the phone books from every state in the union for my maternal and paternal surnames. Then, I wrote letters to these individuals, asking for any family history information that they would be willing to share with me. The result of my letters was mixed, but I did receive two treasures....one was a book on my fathers' family line, and the other was a phone call from New York from my grandfathers' step-brother.These two gems led me on in my quest to discover all that I could about my fathers' family line. 

  Yesterday, I began searching through several binders of collected family information....birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, pictures and other memorabilia. Often, right after a birth certificate would be a death certificate, and it brought to me a sense of nostalgia mixed with melancholy for the reality of the brevity of life hit me. Here before me in these documents was a life lived between the date of birth and the date of death...with so much happening in between. Maybe it was coincidental that I was sifting through these documents on Ash Wednesday, when I was reminded of my own brevity of life.

  Yesterday I discovered details about my parents wedding that I never knew, and wouldn't know except for a newspaper clipping about the ceremony. My mothers' colors were green and white, and her bridesmaids wore mint green dresses. One of our daughters is getting married this spring, and her colors are green and gold, with her bridesmaids wearing green dresses...connection!

  I have decided that I have too much interesting family information to keep it to myself, and so my goal is to organize it and form it into a book. This book will then be given to my family members, and passed on to future generations to keep the connections going. 

~Kathy~

                                     
                                Joliet Township High School (Joliet, Illinois)
                                   (where my parents met and fell in love)

                                       University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
                                        (where my paternal grandparents met
                                                  and fell in love)