Visiting The Past

How about that sunset! A benefit of living in the Southwest is the beautiful sunsets. The best are after a late afternoon rain.

What have I been doing these past few weeks? Working on my family tree! My favorite sites are Ancestry.com and family search.org , the LDS site. I`ve been doing this a few years. It`s like a detective story, following the clues. I`ve gone back 12 generations on some of my family. Some were Pilgrims, most were Quakers and Mennonites. They lived in New England and Chester County PA. Revolutionary War, Civil War, French and Indian and War of 1812 veterans. One fellow was a judge at the Salem witch trials, another a witness who was proved to be lying because he had a grudge against his neighbor. The fun is in the search. The life spans are interesting too. My ancestors living in the 16th and 17th centuries lived to be about 50. In the 18th and 19th centuries they lived to be in their 80`s and 90`s. Some died at 100. During the 20th century the life spans decreased. I`d say it was good nutrition, hard work and good genes. As food became more refined ill health became more prevalent. I was taught that life spans increased as we became more modernized. Not so. Ancestry.com is offering free research in different areas for 15 days starting today.

We`ve been having a rash of robberies in our area. Glad I have big dogs. We knew when the jobs got harder to find this was going to happen. Of course some of it, most of it is drug related. My neighbors are offering a $1,000.00 reward (still growing) for information leading to arrests. It`s never been like this out here.

Have a nice weekend!
Cathy