52 Ancestors Week 52: Me, Myself and I

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 52

The last theme for 2023 is "Me, Myself, and I." You are a part of your own family history. This week, write something about yourself. What do you hope future generations will know.

And remember: The Internet is forever. Someone'll find out about what you did. They ALWAYS find out.....

This is the last 52 Ancestors for 2023! I'll be back next time with a new year and new prompts from our friendly neighborhood genealogist. AND expect more witty commentary. We got some good prompts coming next year.=D

See ya then and happy holidays!!

Comments

Thank you, Chris, for your amusing weekly prompts via Amy Johnson. Your effort is appreciated. 

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Thanks! Expect more next year. I have some....plans. HAHAHA!

Here's this week's blog: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/12/52-ancestors-week-52-me-myself-and-i.html

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Teeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Answer 1

This is a photo taken three weeks ago. It was taken in my home of me (center) with two new friends that I have made by the genealogy work that I have done on here on WikiTree. He is a writer and will be including some of my photos in his book.

Comments

Gorgeous photo Alexis thank you for sharing ❤️❤️❤️

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Susan, they were really nice. My husband couldn’t believe they flew from Massachusetts to Oklahoma to see the photos. I hope his book will be published soon.

Answer 2

I want to let my family know that the many hours spent on Wikitree is not only fun and interesting for me. I also feel that I'm passing on a gift of sorts to those who follow after me. Hopefully, this will help them with those age-old questions of Who am I, and Where did I come from?

Comments

Marty, best wishes for a wonderful holiday season to you and your lovely wife. Your friendship here on WikiTree has been a gift for many of us.

Answer 3

This time I went into my own watchlist and looked for unconnected people. Among them was the son of the inventor Rudolf Diesel. So I started looking at Diesel again to see if there is a trail that wasn't yet used. And there was a daughter of the inventor who wasn't in the database. She married into a Notable family, her father-in-law and his father are known architects. The article about the grandfather-in-law in the German Biography has a huge genealogical part, and when I looked for possible connections into the database here, I had a dozen of surnames I could follow. There was also the name of the father of Hedwig's mother-in-law. In his German Wikipedia-entry I found the name of his parents, and his father was already connected in the database.

PS: I think that the person, who is named as Conrad's brother does not belong into that family. But that does not touch the connection of Diesel's daughter to the family Hase. And my unconnected Watchlist got smaller.

Comments

Wow Jelena--that's a heck-of-a-lot of genealogy work!  Sure do admire you for it.

I have a lot of noted inventors in my family tree too, but have yet to add bio info.

Answer 4

I find it fascinating all the different backgrounds my ancestors had - blacksmiths, brewer's dreyman, engineer, publican, carpenters, Wesleyan ministers, bakers, plumber and glazier, farmers, a policeman - a real mixed bag, and from Leicestershire, Wiltshire, Staffordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, emigrants to Australia, Canada, USA ... Hopefully a record for cousins as I'm the end of my line.

Answer 5

Me, Myself and I

Pat grew up as an only child, an oddity among the massive Baby Boom Generation.  Meeting anyone in the 1960s without siblings was as alien as being a non-smoker.  While many of us quit the tobacco (ME), you can't create a sibling you never had.

Or can you?  Pat (myself) seized a golden opportunity when new neighbors arrived.  Different religion, different skin color, different foods and yet, this wonderful woman feels like the sister I never had.  As her two daughters grew up I was included and involved.  When the eldest daughter married, I was included and involved.  When the eldest had children for the past eight years I have been included and involved.  (I) am known as Auntie Pat.

My story brings me to the WikiTree Story.  We are writing about different people from different backgrounds and religions and connecting them by blood and by marriage.  Their stories are as fascinating as the stories of the people alive today.  Me, myself and I quickly fades into Us, Them, and the Great WikiTree Family.

Comments

I have a sister like that.

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It's wonderful, isn't it, Melanie.

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I am so fortunate to have a sister like yours, as well.  Especially fortunate as my beloved older sister passed away.  Thanks so much for sharing such a heart-warming story.

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Thank you for your comment, Teresa.  I'm so glad to hear others have shared this experience.

Answer 6

Me, myself, and I are on WikiTree with the main intent of leaving the results of several decades of family research on a free public forum to descendants and other relatives known and unknown.  The interesting and personally rewarding research has illuminated an intriguing family tree rooted to a Viking past, the English Separationist and Puritan movements, and the pioneering development of the United States from my ancestors' first arrival in 1626 and  then throughout westward expansion.  Both my son and I have joined a long line of ancestors who have fought in America's wars back to the founding and French and Indian War.

It seems that WikiTree is the one place where that story can be told, and that seems especially poignant with what seems to be the ongoing deliberate destruction of the Constitutional Republic and, indeed, Western civilization itself.  I can only hope and pray that WikiTree will in some form survive.  Thanks to WikiTree for being here.

Comments

I wholeheartedly support your hope, Ray.

Answer 7

Me, Myself, & I

When my paternal Great Aunt, Jessie Puckett introduced my to genealogy I was but a teenager, in the '70's. I have tired to expand her legacy by filling in gaps, and the occasional error. She did a ton of research before the internet, by going to SE Missouri, Germana,VA & other locations, researching our ancestry. I am attempting to further what she started. I want to pass on this legacy to future generations of our family.

Comments

You're doing a superb job, Janet!  I hope you continue to enjoy the journey and the sharing which accompanies it.

Answer 8

Me, that is who I am, from events and actions of others, from the beginning of time and beyond my control. Myself, that is a standalone unit responsible for my actions, since I was born. In retrospect, the result of poor choices, in many cases. I, that is what is left after 24,090 days of life experiences. I dare say that the majority of my choices are behind me, and consequences/results of past actions are all that remain.

Comments

Indeed, how true for all of us.

Answer 9

As I answered the first 52 ancestors post of 2024 on the last day of 2023, it‘s only fitting that I answer that last 52 ancestors post of 2023 on the first day of 2024.

During this past year, I have become more and more a fan of categorization. On a personal level, it helps me to connect to WikiTree members with whom I share some aspect of life (in addition to genealogy). Of course, that only works if they also put categories on their profile page. That way, I connected to David Moore. In the past, we worked for the same organization but as it has thousands of employees throughout the entire world, we had never met, let alone discovered our common genealogical interests. Now that we know, we sometimes work on profiles of people also connected to that organization, cf. e.g. Evelyn (Griset) Pike.

For this new year, I hope to see more Aspies on WikiTree (if they’re willing to self-identify and subsequently connect).

Comments

I am getting signals as well that categorization is important, so I suppose I'll be paying more attention to that.

As for Asperberger's, I'm not sure how to approach that. I was never diagnosed, it wasn't a thing back then. I have had some behaviors/symptoms, but lacking other common signs, so I'm not sure if I fit in that category or some other. But something like genealogy does fit a personality that is detail-oriented, not needing a lot of interpersonal contact, so it wouldn't surprise me if "Aspies" are here in some numbers.

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Thanks for your reply, Rob!

I assume that the majority of diagnosed Aspergers with a profile on WikiTree wouldn't be keen on public identification as such, so the few who have self-identified by tagging the Aspergers category to their profile are probably just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. After all, WikiTree is about family connections and not about individual diagnoses ...

Answer 10

Well, I was featured in a "member of the week" post this year. That was a pretty neat honor, and as long as I made sense there, that's enough talking about myself for a bit.

Comments

Just read your interview (again) - thanks for sharing!

(Interesting similarities: listening to grandmothers' stories, active on Wikipedia from 2006, joining WikiTree in late 2017, Germany Project members ... ;-)