Who Do You Think You Are?

I have been doing a lot of family history lately and I'm addicted.  I love to think about the stories that I do know, learn new stories and wonder about the what if's or just the what's, where's and why's.  There is a new TV show called "Who Do You Think You Are" on Friday nights on NBC (I think), that got the fires going again.  It is focused on celebrities and helping them find out more about their progenitors.  I am so jealous that they get to travel and see the places where their families lived.
I have loved geneaology since I was young.  I remember sitting on the floor with family group sheets and pedigree charts spread out before me, wanting to know more and wanting to know those people.  Who were they, how did they live, what did they wear, and did they ever wonder about their future progeny?  I loved listening to the family stories and wish now that I would have taken notes!  While I was visiting with my cousin Karen last month I loved hearing her story and seeing the pictures of how she and Joe met and married in 1959.  I wondered to myself~why didn't I know these things?  Well, probably because I spent many years being a selfish teenager and young mother (not that young mother's are selfish-just busy ), more focused on my interests, problems and issues than on other's.  But now it gives me a new understanding of who she was and is, and increases my love for her~turns my heart to my family.  That is the thing I love most about family history, it increases the love I have for my family~my entire family.  (And as I will write more about in the future~it has grown!)
Ancestry.com and Family Search through LDS.org are great tools.  Years ago when I was first doing this I had to go to the Family History library and do a lot of writing to different states for information.  Now it is available right here at my personal computer!  Amazing!
The silhouette's above are of my parents, Bob and LeeElda.  I don't remember what year they were done, but I love them and I finally got around to getting them framed and on the wall.  I love to see them everyday and remember things about their lives.  They had trials and joys, they weren't just names on a chart.  I learn from those life experiences and by doing so increase my love for my family.
My Mom was a hairdresser and had her own beauty shop in our house in Portland.  While I was at Karen's Joe brought out the sign that use to hang from the pole as you went up the stairs to the shop, it had been in some of my Mom's stuff and ended up at Aunt Pauline's (Karen's Mother).  It's funny how something so simple can bring back so many memories and feelings~I love it and put it up so I could look at it everyday.

Maybe I'm getting overly sentimental in my old age~I'll be one of those Grandma's that cry and reminisce at the drop of a hat!