Good Morning Friends...Happy Thursday!
There's nothing really special about a Thursday, but it's as good as
any other day when it comes to finding your JOY...right! ;)
I have always been a HUGE history buff...I truly LOVE history, with
American history being top on my list. I also love genealogy, peering
through 100 year old records in search of a clue that will help you
connect the dots to your own family history.
For me the two go hand in hand...so as I dived into the Ancestry.com
pool, I was amazed to find the military records for my many times
great~grandfathers. My immediate family came from Illinois by way
of Virginia & we have been in this country since 1617. One of my
grandfathers fought in the 1st Colonial uprising, Bacon's Rebellion.
We fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Indian
Wars & of course with all that family history, we also fought in the
Civil War. In fact my family fought in the Civil War on both sides.
The idea that they all lived through these wars is a miracle to me &
had anything played out differently, I would probably
not be here...so crazy to think of!
As one might think, my Virginia 3x Great Grandfather fought for the
Confederacy, while my Illinois 3x Great grandfather fought for the Union
Army. Two men who had never met, who's lives were so completely
different, who would normally have absolutely nothing in common,
found common ground through the love of their children.
After the war, Virginia was a battlefield...it was in complete ruin. In the 1st
Census after the war which was in 1870, my Grandfather still lived in Virginia
with his wife & 5 children, one of them being my 2x Great~Grandfather who
was 8 years old. His household also included his mother~in~law & 2 young
women, 1 with a small son. {I love that census, it's my favorite! Can you
believe I actually have a favorite census? lol} I'm sure those women were
family or wives of close friends, who's husbands died in the war. It was
some time after this that he gathered up his family & took them west
to a place where he could start over, a place where he could buy
a few acres of land & begin again.
It was here in Illinois, the state of Abraham Lincoln's birth, my Brewer
clan would settle. Grandpa & Grandma would have 5 more children &
they would raise all 10 of them working the land as their father's,
father's had. And here, their 2nd son would fall in love with the
beautiful daughter of a Union soldier, they would marry
& our story would finally come full circle.
This is why I Love history so much.
For me, it's important to remember our collective past...
it's what creates the cloth from which we are all
woven from.
woven from.
xoxo
vintagesusie
