Tuesday, December 4, 2012

family history

Lately while working at the hotel I've been doing some family history research.  I got the idea a while ago while trying to think of something I could do that would be worth while while sitting for 8 hours a night.  I don't want to waste my time and need something to occupy a lot of time.  So my mom suggested doing family history.

Since my mom's parents both have most of their ancestors traced back to the early 1800's and 1700's, I don't know that I could do much on that side.  My dad has ton's of work to do for his side though.  He assigned me to work on his Scott side of the family.  This is where my name comes from.  His grandma Bertha, so my great grandmother, was a Scott.  He has a ton of information on them, but needs it entered into family search and paf.

While doing this I've found some records, photos and other documents about my great-grandmothers family.  It's pretty neat to learn where they came from.  I find it interesting to learn the ancestors names, and I can tell you where most were born on this line of the family.  I spent probably 10 hours researching birth, marriage and death dates.  Imagine my disappointment when I found out we already had all of the information I've spent a bit of time finding again!

So now I am going through the folder containing all of the information we have on that line of the family.  We have a newspaper click from a long time ago, I can't find a date on it, that tells about my great-grandma's grandfather and how we came to live in Missouri.  That's pretty cool that we still have something that is probably close to 100 years old.

I want to mention something that many find weird about me.  I love to collect things.  Most kids collect rocks, stamps, coins, or other things.  But most will out grow them by their late teen years.  I collected old birthday cards, thank you notes, and other memento's.  I kept a scrapbook on my mission.  I took all of the digital pictures my parents have of me and now I have them.  I don't know why, but I want my kids and grand kids to always remember me in 100 years.

I think this is something that most people want: to make a lasting impression on this earth.  They want to have their kids remember them.  Because this life seems to go by with astonishing velocity as you get older.  We realize that we will get replaced by someone else.  Many dictator's wanted to make their names known for centuries after they died.  They believed that to be remembered was glory.

To a certain extent, that is true. We remember the Babylonians, the Persians  the Greeks, the Romans.  They conquered huge chucks of the earth.  They created amazing civilizations.  We in the present day study them, their ways of life, their system's of government.  We remember Cesaer, Jesus, and other great leaders.

Why do we do this?  We have many great leaders among us today.  I doubt many ancient people know where Jesus really was.  He was a prophet among the Jews.  The Jewish population in the world at the time was relatively small.  So why is he so famous today?  I think it is because his followers told others, and those others told others, so on and so forth.  Over time the truly great leaders and people get remembered, while those who did less grand and great things are left, to be forgotten.

I am very grateful to a Heavenly Father who loves everyone.  He knows the lowest slave, and the great leaders of this world.  He knows us as no one else can know us.  I may not be a great leader, and probably won't make it into any history book that is taught from in schools, but I am just as important as the next guy.

This is the reason I want to do family history:  I want to remember my ancestors.  I want to try to find out about them, to remember them.  I don't think any made it into history books, but they were real people.  Because without them I would not be alive today.

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