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Day 166: TV Again!

Is it super lame to do two posts about TV in a row? Especially after you have just said you don't watch much TV? Oh well!

Yesterday when the boys were doing their bedtime stalling version of playing well together, I got sucked into an episode of Genealogy Roadshow. My husband left to go vote and returned to find me still staring mindlessly at the television, learning about how someone's three second-great-uncles died in 1872. (Spoiler: it was smallpox.)

I am a sucker for ancestry, even when it is not my ancestry, I guess. I really enjoy Finding Your Roots, too. I find it a bit lame that they always take some small detail and try to spin it dramatically, but it's TV, so I should expect that. Why is everyone so shocked that their ancestors owned slaves? It sounds awful now, but it was an accepted practice at one time and I don't think we should all reasonably assume our ancestors were the ones living counter-culturally. But I digress.

This is my stunning grandmother, Bess.
Definitely my favorite ancestral photo.
Isn't it perfect? 
I am always fascinated by the records they are able to find and the stories they can piece together. I would love very much for someone to do an in-depth family history for me. Ancestry research is probably the thing (besides reading all the books) that I would do if I had all the time and money in the world.

This is my grandparents and my uncle Skip in 1939.
Grandma had written "Grapes of Wrath" on the back.
Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. 
I did a photo book about my maternal grandparents a few years ago. I included as much of a family tree as I could piece together from the notes I inherited from Grandma, and what my mom and uncles knew. I think I can find which generations came from Europe, but I don't know much else and would love to delve into it someday. Grandma was a fantastic storyteller and I wish we'd written or recorded more of her stories.

Family histories are so rich and interesting, and I hope someday to know more of mine. In the meantime, I'll just watch strangers on Geneaology Roadshow.
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