Why Search?

Over the years I've gotten more and more interested in my family line. Growing up a part of me always knew where I came from as my parents told stories of their parents and grandparents. I also knew that the majority of my family came from Germany but all the stories and bits of  information was never put together into a cohesive picture...more like a disjointed puzzle with  missing pieces.

 As time has went on I've become more interested and curious as to where it all began.   I don't know if it's just a sense of curiosity or out of mortality; as proof that as long as we are remembered we continue to live. I remember my mother going to library's to try and find information that included long days searching handwritten indexs. With the internet I've been able to search far faster and many more people then she could have ever dreamed. And as I've found more ancestors, looked at far away  courthouse records from the comfort of my living room or found a short newspaper article that included mention of my grandmother's first marriage, her occupation and the location where they lived at the time , I'm now leaning more toward mortality then curiosity. Maybe 100+ years from now my grandchildren and great grandchildren will be looking up information on their great-great grandmother Jules with an interest in each new piece of the puzzle that makes up their heritage.

Slowly pieces of the puzzle come together. My great grandfather Albert met his future wife, 16 year old Albertina Blank on the ship as they traveled to America from Germany. Herman Lucht was left to raise 5 small children when his wife Bertha was struck by lightening in July 1900. My grandmother Alma, daughter of Herman and Bertha lost her first husband in an accident when his truck was struck by a train at a railroad crossing in 1912. These stories make up the me, through their lives it had an impact on their children that was passed down to me.

I hope that someday a clear picture of the many people that make up my DNA will emerge. The history of their travels from great distances,  the wars they fought including the Civil War and the Revolutionary War. The hardships they endured that made up their lives but were also passed down to me and my family so that we could have the lives we live today.