I Guess Using Family Names Isn't In My Future

Yesterday was a great day.  I'm normally not a huge Valentine's Day fan.  N and I try to show each other love and appreciation more than once a year.  Yesterday I walked into a clean house, flowers and a card on the counter with my name on it and dinner ready to eat.  He does this randomly throughout the year, but it was a nice surprise last night simply because we're not huge Valentine's Day people. 

As I was getting in the house and looking through the mail, I found a large, white envelope with my name on it.  It was thick.  It was from Grammy.  Usually if Grammy sends you something, you know what's coming.  She'll usually call and let you know when to expect it.  This was a total surprise.  It just had my name on it.  I was completely stumped as to what it could be.

When we stayed with her at Thanksgiving one of my goals while down there was to chat with her about her family's genealogy.  She's one of those people who can tell you small details about her great-grandma that you'd never know unless stories had been passed down.  Her ancestors are from England, Wales and Scottland.  She's been to all those places a couple times.  She knows her clan's plaid.  She's not only a wealth of knowledge about family history, but she's a great story teller.  I could listen to her for hours talk about family history.

It also helps that I have a love for family history too.  My grandfather only spoke German until he went to school.  He was born in 1911.  In Idaho.  Yet when we'd try to get information on family out of him, he didn't really have any stories.  Hearing N's Grammy talk about family is fascinating to me.  She can show me cross-stitching that her mother did and pots and pans that have been in the family for years.  I love that.  Probably because my extended family isn't close. 

So when I opened the envelope yesterday I saw a family tree.  It included N's family (both his mom's and dad's), but it also included mine.  I used to just be able to go back to my great-grandparents.  They were born in the 1870's and died shortly after my mom was born.  In this packet of information that I got yesterday, it went farther back.  It included another generation and names of children and siblings.  I was dumb-founded.  All this time Grammy has been researching my family.  As I went through the records and saw the names I started to cry.  I am so blessed to have a family that loves me enough to spend time researching my past.  Thank you Grammy.  I actually don't have words to adequately express my appreciation and gratitude.  No one has ever done that for me before.

The other thing that totally struck me as I look at Zoe's family tree are the names.  Zoe's real name is after both sides of her family.  Her first name is from my family and her middle name is from N's.  I love that she shares her name with people I love(d).  As I look at N's family tree I see names like Hannah and Beverly.  Nice names that you would totally pass along. 

When you look at my family tree you see names like Wallihan and Bearnet.  Names that you so wouldn't give to your child.  Names that make sense in 1800's Germany, but not really in 2011 USA. 

I got a huge kick out of it.  It made me remember my grandpa teaching me to count in German.  Now I know why.  He wasn't a Bernard, he was a Bearnet.