[Sparkle]

I spent quite a lot of time recording family history in the year before my grandmother died. I am so glad I did, it was really wonderful time she and I spent together.

This thread reminded me that I should really make the time to spend with my other grandmother, as well. Thanks!

Most of my lineage is from the United States going back until the late 1700/early 1800s. It is said that one line was among the passengers on the first Mayflower (I've not seen the evidence of that though).

I can trace about 7-generations on American soil; and it wasn't until my mother's generation that anyone moved away from the very small region in Upstate New York that they settled after immigrating.

I've have had some interesting stories arise from the research we did:

I have a great Aunt who was an ex-pat and spent the 'Belle Epoque' years in her apartment on the Left Bank in Paris. She was independently wealthy and never married, and there is a good chance (though it is unconfirmed) that she was a lesbian. I have a portrait of her, a book of her travel photos and a few pieces of the art she collected.

One of my great Grandmothers was a "mail-order bride" from Austria. She was "bought" by my great Grandfather after his first wife died and was brought over to the States - they had three children together.

A truly tragic (but fascinating) story came up. In the early 1920s my great Grandfather had a wife and four small children and one on the way, he also had a long term lover with whom he was unwilling to part. They ran away together deserting their respective families twice; both times their families tracked them down and dragged them back. The third time they ran away - they had made a murder/suicide pact. He shot her and then himself.

Which is horrific and tragic, and in the course of our research we found that there was an endemic of murder/suicides in that particular period of time. There was four other cases cited in local papers within a two year period.