Family Roots

*originally written March 18, 2019

I thought I knew what I wanted to say today, but then I looked up and saw the genealogy section with the Williamson County cemetery inventories, death records, obituaries, and then “veterans”. It look me all of 30 seconds to find my 2 times Great Uncle, Walter Clyde Sherertz, in the WWI record. He was in the Army during WWI and died during the Spanish Flu epidemic. His mother, Anna Davis Sherertz, outlived her three sons and was survived only by her daughter. As a mother I can’t even imagine the pain her heart endured. Her daughter was my Great-grandma, Addie. Anna, her husband, and her three sons are buried at Union Grove Cemetery in Pittsburg, IL.

It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve written my #LibraryThoughts, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking of writing them. I’m finding that there are many times when something is happening or I’m hearing something really good that I find myself thinking, “I should write about that.” All too often I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants doing the #FullTiltBoogie and don’t make it happen. This morning the Monday morning rush was on, and I knew I would get to the library and need to send messages and answer texts and hoped my treasured quiet time wouldn’t be overrun. My texts won’t send, and my phone says I have no service. So, if you’ve sent me a text, I’m not ignoring you. 😉

Have you researched your family tree at all? Have you given any thought to who all those people were and where they all came from? Have you watched any of the programs like Finding Your Roots? Have you submitted your DNA to Ancestry or 23 and Me? I’m amazed by how if anything had happened differently 100, 200, 300+ years ago, I wouldn’t even be here. I think of my ancestors who boarded big boats and crossed the Atlantic. If they hadn’t left Europe, would I have even been born? And if so, would I currently be living somewhere in Europe? Then there are those who landed on the east coast and migrated around ultimately landing in Southern Illinois where they planted roots and set the stage for my being born here and my children and grandchildren too.

I think of the butterfly effect and how one little shift could have changed everything, and also how the choices my ancestors made did change everything. I’ve stood over many graves and whispered, “I remember you. Thank you.”