Homesick

This wonderful farm in Illinois has been in my family since 1900. My mother was practically raised there. My grandmother and her six siblings were all born in the main house. I spent endless summers there growing up. My great-great grandfather passed away a few years ago, and his remaining children chose greed over history. They split the land up and auctioned it off last year. It broke my mother’s heart when they didn’t hesitate to get rid of the farm.

I’ve been trying to organize all of our family photos for years. It’s a fun task that I’ve given myself. I’m trying to track down names and information about unknown family in the early 1900’s that I have images of. To be able to accumulate all of this amazing knowledge for my children and any future generations past them would be spectacular. With the remaining family I have alive, I am putting the pieces of the puzzle together slowly. I’d love to write about family, the farm, and current things for family 100 hundred years down the line to read.

Through Ancestry, I actually had family track me down. They managed to somehow link my ancestry to my Facebook (when I had Facebook way way back then). Turns out, my dad has a half sister he never knew about. Hell, he didn’t even know his dad had been married before his mom. My cousins had done the Ancestry DNA test. I still haven’t done it, partly because I don’t want to be placed into a system, but at the same time, wouldn’t it be badass to know exactly where I come from? My dad’s family came from Sweden somewhere only about four generations ago from what I’ve heard. His side is a bit of a mystery which I fully intent to unravel.

Well, I guess I’m going to go research some more now!