Where Have I Been

 

I haven't posted anything since about a month prior to the start of the pandemic (I know I'm stating the obvious here).  I had a lot of plans for the spring and summer to do a little traveling with my cousin.  We planned to do some in person research at various court houses in the hopes of solving one of our biggest family mysteries (our Reade family connection that makes us cousins of George Washington and a direct descendant of Nicholas Martiau of Jamestown). Obviously, that wasn't able to happen.  So I planned out "to do" projects for when I would be home and not working for two weeks during the shut down.  But after a couple of days, my employer was allowed to open, and I've been working the entire time.  I'm very thankful for the normalcy of my work weeks, but disappointed that I had little time for research and blogging. 

That's not to say I haven't done anything.  I have been in contact with some members of my mom's family which has offered me some valuable information and validation that I don't normally have.  My mom being the youngest doesn't have all the information needed to validate what I may come across in my research.  It's been great to connect with cousins from my mom's dad's side of the family and also her mom's side of the family.  And I've also gathered bits and pieces of information here and there about other branches of my tree.

Sadly, in the time that I've been away from blogging, I lost my aunt.  It's been nearly 6 months, but I'm not really at a point where I can even discuss it.  But it makes me want to stress to everyone not to wait to get those stories and to get those photos ID'd.  My cousin and I thought we had time.  We didn't.  And that's all I'm going to say about that right now.  Go get that info while you can.

And other than all that, I've been trying to document what's happening in my small part of the world during this hugely historic time.  I jot down things I want to be sure to journal about so that future generations know what the world was like during the Covid 19 Pandemic.  Mostly I'll probably say it sucked I'm trying to include as many details as possible on how life changed.  I'm hopeful it will be normal again soon.  I have court houses to visit.

With all that being said, it's time for a little self care and that includes carving out time for something that interests me, brings high satisfaction (when I discover accurate information previously unknown) and offers an escape from the frustration of the world right now.  So I'm picking one night out of the week to be my genealogy night that is dedicated to research and blogging (or maybe 2 nights, one for research one for blogging). There are so many stories out there to be uncovered and shared, and I want to make sure I discover them while I can.  So I've made a dedicated space in my 140 year old house (that's haunted) where I research sitting at a desk made by my uncle with the rocking chair owned by my great great grandmother Lida Crooks Taylor behind me (it's haunted too). And I'll share some of these interesting stories I've uncovered.