Get to the Roots

I'm obsessed.

When I was 16 I wrote a letter to my biological father asking him for some information on his side of the family. He's the only one I've ever met, and I wanted to know more. After visiting with his grandmommy, my great-grandmommy, he sent me a hand-drawn family tree.

What did I find?

He doesn't know his biological father, so I have his mom's side to trace.
My great-great grandma's name is Minnie Ola Brown. Minnie Ola - man, that's cool.
I have a fair amount of Native American blood in my veins. Enough to qualify for benefits even.
My third-great grandma's, who was full blooded Cherokee, either first or last name was Queen - and I know nothing else about her...but I do have a picture.
My ancestors came across on the Mayflower - a fact I still need to confirm.
I'm related to Buddy Holly.

I've carried these tidbits around for the last 7-8 years. When I was student teaching at Northwest Classen in 2007, I came across some down time so I decided to google some names. One was Kathrine Hernett, my grandmother, whom I've yet to meet. Her name came up in an obituary. She wasn't dead, but her dad passed away. I read the obituary less than 2 months after he died. Oh, here's the really good part: He lived in Oklahoma...about an hour away from me in the small town of Macomb. After a bit of shock and a lot of disappointment that he'd been alive for so much of my life, but was now gone after living so close, I wrote a letter to Lance (my biological father). He sent a copy of the program from his service. It turns out that Roy Elmo Lewis ran one of the largest cock fighting rings in the nation. When they outlawed it in Arizona, he moved to Oklahoma. Neat.

The point.

His obituary was full of new names and relationships.

The real point.

The LDS church released a new ancestry database a few months ago. I got on it for the first time last night. Someone has researched one of my grandmother's lines back for quite a few generations. It made me proud to see the connections. The other line, however, was put in by me today. That's Roy Elmo Lewis's line, whose grandmother was ... Queen or Queen ... /.

I look forward to adding more branches to my tree. I love knowing I belong to something so big. I love people...their stories.

I love that I am part of their story and they are part of mine.

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