Writing, Updated
The truth is, I have no writing update. I've put Elvira on the shelf. For how long, I'm not sure. It may be forever, or I may revisit her after I move past the genealogy that's been sucking the life out of me.
Every time I visit Dad, I ship myself more of Memaw's files and books. I promised him I'd go through everything at my own pace, and determine what we want to keep and what I can toss. Honestly, I can sit at the computer for hours staring at Ancestry.com and trying to match their crowd-sourced records with Memaw's work. And I must say, her work is better, more exacting.
I'm so impressed at her labors. That woman spent 50+ years traveling to a gazillion county courthouses to look up land records, wills, and birth/marriage/death certificates. It was always a labor of love, but it obviously kept her engaged in her world for a lot longer than most people.
So far, I've learned two things: 1) don't ever trust the family trees on Ancestry...people just click on family trees without checking on whether those relatives could actually be theirs; and 2) Memaw used some magical thinking in a few instances...linked us to family lines she wanted to belong to, not ones to which we actually belong. Oh well.
Every time I visit Dad, I ship myself more of Memaw's files and books. I promised him I'd go through everything at my own pace, and determine what we want to keep and what I can toss. Honestly, I can sit at the computer for hours staring at Ancestry.com and trying to match their crowd-sourced records with Memaw's work. And I must say, her work is better, more exacting.
I'm so impressed at her labors. That woman spent 50+ years traveling to a gazillion county courthouses to look up land records, wills, and birth/marriage/death certificates. It was always a labor of love, but it obviously kept her engaged in her world for a lot longer than most people.
So far, I've learned two things: 1) don't ever trust the family trees on Ancestry...people just click on family trees without checking on whether those relatives could actually be theirs; and 2) Memaw used some magical thinking in a few instances...linked us to family lines she wanted to belong to, not ones to which we actually belong. Oh well.
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