I have been working almost frantically trying to catch up on my genealogy research that I have missed since we have been working an enormous amount of overtime. Last weekend, I spent nearly all day Sunday researching as if I didn't have time to waste. I knew that if I stopped there would be another delay in completing my desired goal for the day.
What I have been doing is researching a grandfather and grandmother, then research all of their children. Each grandfather and grandmother as a couple has their own book. To date, I have 19 books. Then I decided to include pictures of the people that I am researching. It is nice to see what someone looked like instead of just gathering dates and other facts. Afterall, they were actual people and not just data to input into the computer.
This evening, I was looking through a bunch of old pictures that I had printed to put into a scrapbook. I have been doing this in conjunction with my family research. The picture above was in a drawer for a while. It is of my great grandfather Joseph Rufus Smith and his wife Bettie Mae Castle along with their children. Then it dawned on me that my grandfather, Daniel Boone Smith, was the little nine year old boy on the extreme left in the first row. He didn't change much over the years and I could tell it was him right away because of the look on his face and especially the ears. My Dad had those same ears.
As a kid, I thought that he was old. He only lived to be 60. Now I am that age and wonder if my nieces and nephews think that I am old too? I'm sure that they do. Inside I feel the same as I always have. The soul doesn't age, just the body. A few of my finger joints in my hands are now starting to enlarge where arthritis has settled and I often accomplish things at a slower pace than before. L'Oreal keeps the gray hair at bay until I am ready to let it all go.
I love looking at old pictures and try to visualize in my head what those people were like. Sometimes, I wish to be able to go back in time and visit those people who helped me to my place here on earth. Don't you?
