It is a another second post Sunday where not only do you get to read
Stories Of Renown & Some That Might Be True Too
but this post too.
In addition to spending time with family in person I have spent a big chunk doing the genealogy bit and have discovered all sorts of interesting stuff about family, or at least interesting to me.
Haven’t come across anything like George R.R. Martin did here, but still all sorts of stuff that has caught my eye and ear.
Every question I answer is followed by three more and there are so many trails to follow I am not sure which way to go or how far down the rabbit hole I wish to go.
It is unquestionable I’ll come across word of those who were lost in Europe and I’ll wonder if they knew what was coming or not.
And I’ll wonder if they knew what drove their decisions to stay or if they tried to get out and couldn’t do so.
I don’t expect to find that kind of detail. Don’t expect to come diaries or letters but there might be family history that is passed down from parent to child.
That is how I found out that my uncle saved his sister by making sure she stayed in England and didn’t return to Lithuania.
Write, Write, Write
There are better quotes to use following the prior paragraph but I have a half dozen things to do and don’t want to go searching because I’ll get sucked in.
It covers the general idea of not knowing and makes me wonder again about family secrets because everyone has them.
I am not in search of those but I am interested in putting puzzle pieces together. For example I am one of 19 great-grandchildren of Ben Wilner but I am not sure I have an entire list of us.
We have never all been together and there is a pretty big age range. I don’t know if I ever knew there were 19 of us and had I not come across his obituary today I might not have.
Anyhoo, I know for certain there is at least 23 years between those I believe to be the youngest and the oldest.
I know we grew up in multiple states and that is a big part of why we didn’t connect, but I don’t know if there was ever an effort or thought put into it.
Maybe yes and maybe no.
It occurs to me that my great-grandfather and his siblings were spread through at least three countries during a time when long distance calls were costly and email didn’t exist.
Today the world is very small in many ways but for a man who died in 1975 it was much bigger and more challenging to stay connected than it is now.
Still the obit told me there were more connections than today and that doesn’t entirely surprise me.
Life happens.
****
I used the Stephen King quote in the feature image in the prior post and am using it again because it is important.
As a writer and storyteller it resonates with me and those with common sense know to work smarter and not harder.
So we seek practical advice that can immediately be implemented and do our best to be both skillful and artful in its application.
And with that we conclude this edition of second post Sunday on this blog.
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