Subj : Family History
To   : All
From : Adept
Date : Thu Sep 22 2022 22:23:26

In the interests of getting some _other_ discussion going, I'd like to talk a bit about family history.

Mostly the delight in having gone on a trip in Europe to see some of the places where my families are from.

I was expecting that I'd go to various cities, snap some pictures with signs saying the place name, maybe take some pictures of old buildings, and call it a success.

So the first place I went, I did just that. It's a small place in Germany, and I headed to what's possibly the only church (I'm not double checking that; but it's small) in the particular area. And it's a church that's been around since well before my great great grandpa was there.

So, pictures, etc.. But then I looked in the graveyard, and found some examples of people with the old family name. And it's a rare-enough name that it's fairly likely that they're distant relatives.

But then later I found out that my great great grandfather was not only aware of the church's existence, he was baptized at that church.

I was happy with that success, but then went to a couple different areas in Denmark.

And, to cut a long story short, did something similar -- find the church local to the small area, and look at grave sites.

And, in Denmark, I found the grave sites of 2 or 3 of my great great great grandparents (all but one of the great great great grandparents from Denmark).

Which, with Europe being a place where grave sites are generally rented rather than owned, seems rather amazing.

And I say "2 or 3" because there's no reasonable doubt on two of them, but the 3rd one, while of the proper age and area, is someone with a name that's common enough that I'm not completely certain.

So, yeah, other than taking a trip to Norway, I don't really have enough family history to go looking for signs of other ancestors, and maybe I'll make that trip eventually.

But it was really neat to find the levels of connections I did.

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