Holidays and Missing Family

An acquaintance on Facebook, whom I admire for his dedication, is searching for his family and roots. He's encountered a road block that is all too common. In so many parts of the country, the document repository of the history of a town no longer exists. A great many of them were consumed by fire many moons ago. It's a sad thing really. So much of  who we are can be found in where we come from.

I know this situation well. I have the same issues for my children. Some records of their maternal family history are lost to the smoke rising on the wind. On a positive note, those records go back at least a couple of generations, so they can get an idea of the last hundred years or so. Still, it would be nice to see where their tree branches in the history of this nation.

As for myself, I can only trace half my tree. My maternal tree I know has roots that go back to the founding of Washington, IL. I even got to visit there a few years ago. Nice little town, with a town square and our family name still appearing on some of the businesses. That's my grandfather's branch. My grandmother's branch is quite a bit more hazy, but I haven't done any formal research down that road. Maybe one day I will.

Sadly, I guess, that's all I have. I know I must have a paternal branch to my tree, because I doubt seriously my biological mother was an immaculate conception. More likely, I was the product of the uniform of the day. Ok, maybe the week. I don't know. I can't know. My biological mother seems have to have fallen off the planet. Her parents (my grandparents and the people I knew as mom and dad growing up) crossed over many moons past. I can't even ask her if she knows who my sperm donor was. So I am left with a family tree that leans heavily to one side. Must be pretty flexible because it seems to keep standing.

The prompt for this entry? The upcoming holiday. My oldest daughter and granddaughter are somewhere in the New York area and I can only hope they get to be together. They weren't for Thanksgiving. My middle daughter and her husband will be leaving Fresno to make what sounds like several stops in Southern California. My youngest and her husband are in SoCal and will probably be making appearances at both family sites. My oldest stepdaughter, her husband and their two children are two hours south of here and, well, I have no idea. My youngest stepdaughter is in Rhode Island. Because her "fiance" is still married, he'll probably be spending the day with his family, meaning she'll likely be alone, as she was for Thanksgiving. My stepson, the youngest of the bunch, will be two hours south. In fact, he'll leave this Sunday and spend three weeks down there. Gotta love a school system that needs a three week winter break.

My hunny is working the 24th and the 26th. It will be me and her and the ducks outside to celebrate. This will be our first year "alone". Should be interesting.