Family Ties: Introduction

 I’ve been sitting here staring at my computer screen for a hot minute, trying to figure out how to say what I want to say. That’s the trouble with writing. Why write if you have nothing to say, but conversely (and herein lies my problem), how can I possibly write when I have all these words in my head screaming to get out. As I sort through the thought tornado spinning wildly out of control through the grooves of my, today, insufficiently outfitted gray matter, I just decided to start typing. I just got a brand new keyboard that makes the most delightful typing sounds. I’m very happy with the tactile feel of the keys and the rainbow leds lighting it from underneath. My kids are somewhat occupied for the time being, somehow, so I have a moment to begin to collect my thoughts and ideas about how I want to move forward on this blog.

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I have come upon a sort of project. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am utterly obsessed with genealogy. I constantly live with one toe in my ancestors’ parlors and one in my own timeline. I don’t even do this intentionally, I’m just always thinking antiquitically (this is most definitely not a word). Somehow, my family is fortunate enough to have a few genealophiles (also probably not a word), and at some point someone documented ON PAPER our entire family history back entirely too far to be reasonable. So, my first point of purpose is to discover the verity (almost certainly a word) of the claims made in these family trees. If they are to be believed the information dates back almost 2,000 years. 

R-L: Richard Merrill Sawyer, Lucy Buck Sawyer
Clarence B Sawyer, unidentified ca. 1907-1908

I realize I have just dropped a bomb, so I’m giving  you a sec to absorb what I’ve just said. Page one of my family tree begins with the grandfather of Constantine the Great (yes THAT Constantine) and dates from around 300 AD in Wales. I’ll get more into my freak-outage of this boi in a different post. The task I’ve been set is to photocopy the original family trees for both my brother and my cousin. I’d also love to preserve the originals and further organize and research them. Like I said, my first order of business is verification, then organizing, then diving head first into these peoples’ lives, their passions, the economies they came from, their occupations and allllllll the millions of questions I’m going to have. I know we have some key people to highlight and I’d like to spotlight those. I’d also like to highlight the people in my family tree(s) that made a personal impact on me either in person or in researching them, be they grand or ordinary.

I love not just the administrative tasks of organizing and copying, but I also absolutely love the research-end of it. I can feel it, imma be obsessed. I’m not sure if this will become a series as I do this particular side of my whole huge family a bit of justice, or if it will be an ongoing hobby that I’ll continue to feature for years. Hopefully I can carve out a little space on the interwebs for my experience and the people who have shaped it. Will I make any money off ads on my blog? If so, will it be enough to pay for the exorbitant ancestry subscription? Should I take up photography? Should I take a trip to my Mom's hometown and interview one of my favorite relative (no one tell my other relatives...)? Am I going to heretofore be classified as "one of those people" who makes some poor archivist, sequestered in the catacombs of a New England library, roll their eyes at my unchecked enthusiasm for city records? Such questions I cannot answer at this moment in time. It’ll all play out in the end, as my husband would say.

I’ve really missed writing. And as per usual…I hope I’m doing this right.