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A Little Family History... Old and New

This past Memorial Day was just as it should be... spent with family remembering and learning about ancestors. My grandmother, who is 90 years old and beautiful, traveled from her home in Moab, Utah to spend some time with us visiting the places from her life. I don't think my husband was too thrilled to have to drive all that distance to spend time with my family but he was a good sport and got over an hour! of video of my grandmother's life history... straight from her mouth.

My ancestors, on my grandmother's side, were Utah Pioneers. They settled in central Utah. Many came from England and Denmark by ship. I have been able to trace a few on the Ellis Island registry. When these particular ancestors arrived in what was to be their home, they first lived in dugouts on the mountainside until the town could be built. My grandmother told us stories of her grandmothers and some of the food she ate when young. Things like sweetbreads (thymus glands), fagots (chopped liver), real sausage made with intestine casings, and something made with hearts and kidneys and other things I don't want to think of. She always said that nothing was wasted. Now, I'm not much of a meat eater myself and could happily live the rest of my days as a vegetarian so the thoughts of these foods makes me think I would be very, very thin back then !!

We visited a few homes from my grandmother's life as well as the building she went to school in for her entire elementary and secondary schooling. This is the school, which is now being used by a mining company:

This is the actual original, still standing and being used, granary used by my grandmother's family for storing grain:

We also visited the home that my great-grandparents built in the 1950's with my grandfather. I remember visiting this home on many occasions and could still visualize my great-grandmother on the side of the home by the big tree working in her garden.

I love family history and genealogy and was thrilled to get some more information !!

And working on new family history: my youngest son graduated from 6th grade. WOW. I now have no more children in elementary school. Only 6 more years and all my children will have graduated from high school. Time goes so quickly. My daughter was honored at an awards assembly at her junior high for being part of the Science Knowledge Bowl Team which took several awards earlier this year. My husband's son graduated from high school, what an accomplishment.

For my own little piece of history, I've been working on some fun custom orders and can now get back to working on new things for my shop. I always have many ideas racing through my mind and not enough time to see them through. Below are some of the things I've made custom, special order:



Here's to a great summer everyone !! May yours be filled with sunny days and sweet memories. And if you live where it's winter and not summer.... may you have great memories in the making also !!

xoxoxoxoxox

~Wendy

Comments

Unknown said…
It is always cool to learn more about where your family came from! Congrats on your son's graduation.
BeadedTail said…
How wonderful to be able to get family history from the source! I'm sure your grandmother enjoyed sharing it as much as you enjoyed hearing it. Congrats to your son too!
That was a sweet post! Congrats on your sons graduation! My youngest is graduating from high school this year...just doesn't seem possible!
Wow, what a neat blog entry, Wendy! Your custom order items are sooo pretty, too...Artsy's got talent! :)

Your grandma truly is beautiful, just like you!
Celeste (Crickets)
p.s. I'm a vegan, myself, so I can relate... ;)
Shell Mitchell said…
cute story, and I agree - your grandma is still beautiful!
Waterrose said…
What a great way to spend time with your grandmother.
Paul Sears said…
I'm in total agreement with you, that family and family history are so important. We did the exact same thing over memorial day - we were in Grand Junction, CO (not too far from you), and spent a lot of time talking about the family tree. I'm jealous of your grandmother living in Moab by the way. I used to go there 3-4 times a year and miss it terribly!

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