My grandfather's mother was a 50 year old widow when she decided to leave the small home town in north-east Romania and try her luck in America . Her children followed her (except my grandfather whose wife objected to emigration).
Over the years, I got intrigued by her figure (knew about her only from family stories), and so when I retired, I embarked on a genealogical quest to find out about her american saga. I had very little to begin with.
Genealogy is a highly fascinating subject. It requires a lot of time, work, effort, patience; there are many frustrations on the way, and yet the reward is immense. First of all, it gives one the chance to learn about oneself. I've found out I had skills unknown to me before, such as analyzing and evaluating evidence from various sources.
It may give one a sense of pride, even superiority. It's Me with the initiative and curiosity, not the others in the family, especially not those in America with all the archives at their disposal.
Through genealogy one gets to grasp the real meaning of what is known as ' blood connection'. I felt devastated several times, for people I'd never met and never exchanged a word or photo with.
Examples: a young adopted boy slaughtered his whole adopting family: parents, little sister, grandma, grandpa. The grandma was my relative (G.grandmother's granddaughter). That happened in San Diego, California.
In Florida, a couple with two youngsters (a son and a daughter) got divorced. The father, my relative (G.grandmother's grandson), died of a heart attack. The mother got murdered by her jealous boyfriend shortly after. The two youngsters became orphans.
Both cases have shattered me. I started my genealogy quest for pleasure, and there I was soaking in tragedy. There were of course pleasant surprises too Among the grandchildren of my G.grandmother - a most valued Michigan senator , and his sister, owner of a big, famous radio station. The senator died shortly before I started my quest. His eldest daughter and her family still live in the area. His two other daughters live in California.
I had moments that made me smile , For example, I managed to get my G. grandma's picture from the descendants of two of her daughters (she had three daughters and three sons with her). One daughter was working class - a cook (she and her husband owned the restaurant though). the picture of my G.grandma in the cook's possession was that of a simple, coarse woman; whereas the picture kept by her more educated, younger sister looked ..refined.There was even a husband's picture and he also looked rather refined.
