12.1.09

Death Be Not Shroud

Sometimes I have no idea what to blog about. Going in search of ideas, I stumbled across a meme question that I instantly knew the answer to.

If you had a crystal ball that could tell you the truth about any one thing you wished to know about yourself, life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

I would want to know my complete genealogy. This is something that I’ve been working on for several years. Some lines I can trace back well past the immigrants and through several countries in Europe, following them from before the French Wars of Religion through their escape to Switzerland or Holland, depending on the line. Some lines I think were dropped out of the sky by aliens in UFOs into the Appalachian highlands during the Great Awakening because I can’t find anything about them anywhere no matter how hard I look.

It reminds me of what Cato the Elder said, “After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.”

But if I knew my complete genealogy, what would I do with my fantasized-about free time? And what excuse would I have for my fondness of graveyards and cemeteries? And what use would I have for knowing the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery? Do you know the difference?

6 comments:

  1. I am into genealogy as well. I met my 5th cousin last April after him finding me on a family website where I have written my family tree.
    I find it all very interesting.

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  2. I thought they were one and the same? Jeez, I have so much to learn...

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  3. My husbands family goes all the way back to Pocahantas! Another relative in the family is related to Daniel Boone! One side of our family goes back into the 1300's. One goes back into the 900's.

    It isn't the dates that you live it is the dash in between. What do you do within the dash that is the most important!

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  4. One has graves and one has cemets? Pffft. You've been stressing me with all your big words lately, and now you break out a pop quiz about final resting places! My niece is diggin' in our genealogy. I'm just thankful the family tree has branches.

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  5. And the answer is...
    A graveyard is associated with a church. A cemetery is unaffiliated. I didn't know that until the other day. Learn something new every day.

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  6. I did not know that, thank you so much for that nugget of wisdom. It must be fascinating to have such interesting forebears; mine were all miners, so lives of relatively small importance, seems such a shame...

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