Don't worry, I don't envision turning this into a "Family History" blog! That seems too intrusive, especially with mention of names, etc.
Plus, one person's Family History is not very interesting to other people, unrelated. Heck, even members of my own family show little or absolutely no interest in family members who happened to come before!
I think: how can you possibly understand where you are now, or where you are headed, if you have no idea where or from whom, you came?
My cousin recently came upon a large stash of mostly unidentified historic family photos from the 19th and 20th Century. These were thought to be lost, or even destroyed! But she found them on the family's old Home place farm where she now lives. Currently, she and I are trying to figure out who some (or all, if possible!) of the subjects of the photos were. When they were alive, in their time, walking the earth, etc; you know, just like us.
After the death of my Mother, in 1999, I spent a couple of years riffling through this new gadget called the "Internet" on an overpriced under-powered old Mac---and I learned a lot. Formed a good base for what I am doing at the current time. Back then, I was trying a sooth the grief we mostly all feel when we lose our Mom. Now we have Ancestry.com and these photos! Time to build on the foundation I already made.
How did I get interested in this subject?
It started with the idea that--when I was a young child in the 1950's--there were still a small number of people alive who had experienced the period of the American Civil War; the veterans were almost all gone, but their younger siblings and children were among us. As it happened, one Saturday, when I was 6 or 7, my Grandfather had care taker duty of me for the day; he was planning a visit to his hometown a few hours drive away. As a physician and son, he was likely going to look in on the health and condition of his very elderly parents. So I went with him.
His father--my Great Grand Father--was in a nursing home (temporarily) at that time; our visit was to see him. I have a vaguest memory of him; perhaps the only time I ever met him? After we left GGF, we visited another room way down the hall, dark and small. Nursing homes smelled worse than they do nowadays, so I wasn't very comfortable.
In a single, low bed lay a very, very elderly withered old lady all swathed in sheets. I can remember it as if it were yesterday. 95 year old people in those days looked older than they would today. She knew my Grandfather, but was unable to move much. He comforted her and we left. Later, he mentioned to me that she was one of those people from the Civil War. The name "Aunt Addie" was mentioned, I think.
Once I grew up, I began to ask around the family: who was this woman? No one seemed to know. There were some old aunts, cousins and uncles remembered from visits made in the 1920's--but no one knew much or cared. It was as if no one remembered anyone who wasn't alive at the moment?
Finally, during my research binge of 1999, I located her. She was a sister of my GGF's mother, Louisa. Her name was Adeline (called Addie, of course); she had another sister, Della. Part of a typical huge family of 12 or 13 children. Neither Addie or Della married, but helped take care of aged parents, socialized with friends and visited among relatives around the state. Not a bad life, probably. They were not grandly wealthy, but not poor either. They seem to have spent a lot of time together.
Now, with my cousin's photos, I believe we may have located the image of the two of them--the only photo with two young ladies together. Of course, we don't know which one in the photo above was Addie. But I'm OK with that; this may be the best we can do. Addie and Della both lived well into their 90's, passing away by 1957.
Correction or addition, dated February 17, 2020: After a recent trip to Kentucky and some rummaging around on Ancestry.com: Della passed away in 1957; Adeline died in 1960. It is still a mystery: unless the Lady in the Nursing Home was different was the two I suspect, more likely my subject was Della. It doesn't matter, after all these years, I know this.
These two ladies came from a family of at least 13 children! Their older sister (my 2G-GM) had 13 children that lived to grow up (we have photos) and a couple who died as young children; over a span of years from 1860-1894.
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