I try to set a genealogy research goal for myself every year. Some years are more successful than others. This year I am already failing in that I can't even come up with a goal. I blame it on COVID-fatigue. Oh, that's a real thing for sure!! I surely have had enough of it. Haven't you? I can't really focus on anything. The "plan" is constantly changing. I feel scattered and confined all at once. Anyway...
In my search for a genealogy goal for 2022, I came across the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge" set forth by professional genealogist, Amy Crow Johnson. Each week she present a theme which the participants can interpret anyway they chose to. This week's theme is "Foundations."
The first recollection I have of having any interest in my family history was when I was about 10. I was a Girl Scout and I had a workbook full of badges to pursue and one of them was for genealogy.
I loved making a tree. Something about the organization of the information and the collection of data just gave me strength. I don't know how to explain it better than that. It made me confident in myself that I could ask the right questions to get all these names and birthdays and death dates and visually lay it out in a consistent format on a sheet of paper for everyone to see and understand. It is really no surprise to me that I am a cataloging librarian today. I like to keep shit in order. Librarian was not a childhood career goal, though. I was well into my 30s by the time I chose this career. Like many, I just sort of stumbled on to it my career path. All modesty aside, I am really good at it. I am also pretty fabulous at puzzles. Give me an impossible jigsaw and I can get that done in a few days, no sweat. I do love a good mystery too, although I often figure them out long before the final chapter. Only really good writers can surprise me. I think I am more a genealogist than a librarian.
I blame the foundation of my genealogy addiction on a family reunion I attended in my teens. I think I was about 15 the first time I attended a Losee Family reunion with my paternal grandparents, Ed and Clare Earle. Losee was Grandpa Earle's mother's maiden name; my great grandma was Ethel Mae Losee-Earle.
I could say Ethel was the foundation or root of my interest in genealogy but nope, sorry Ethel, it wasn't really her. For that honor, I point to my great aunt, Jeannette Alice Losee-Henry. Jeannette wasn't especially interested in genealogy, nor was she a central figure in my life. I never even really spent much time with Aunt Jeannette but it was at that reunion that I learned I was related to Aunt Jeannette in 2 ways. Yes, 2 ways. Blew my mind.
I knew Aunt Jeannette was married to Grandma Earle's brother, Richard Henry, making her my great-aunt by marriage. But it was at that Losee reunion that I learned she was related to me biologically as well. She was my grandfather's cousin. Mind blown. Jeannette was born a Losee.
I couldn't get my head around it and it is what really started my research. I needed to understand how she was related to both my Grandma Earle AND my Grandpa Earle. I needed to visually see it on a tree. And neither Jeannette or my grandfather could draw it out for me. Grandma tried but I had to do it myself.
The revelation sparked me to inquire how the couples met. "So did grandpa introduce his cousin to grandma's brother or the other way around?"
The response I received was confounding. It wasn't until Richie brought Jeannette home to meet his parents, Great Grandpa Charles & Great Grandma Anna Henry, that Jeannette's connection to my grandfather was brought to light. My grandparents were already married at the time. At Richie & Jeannette's engagement party, grandpa, who we all called Poppy, simple asked Jeannette what her last name was. To which he reacted with, "That's my mother's maiden name too."
The family sorted out the connection then, again, I had to figure it out on my own to really get it. So this confusing little diagram totally makes sense to me.
To achieve this goal of mapping out how Grandpa Earle was related to Aunt Jeannette Losee-Henry, I made several trips to the Freeport Memorial Library. I was told the Losee Family were early settlers of Freeport. Little did I know how early, but I digress. I thought the Freeport Memorial Library might have some more information for me.
On my first research visit to that library, I was taken into what they called the History Room. While I waited for the librarian to pull some books for me from their closed stack, I wandered around the room with my Grandma Earle reading the plaques on the walls.
I learned the room I was standing in was the original library building and that it was built as a Civil War Memorial. Up on a plaque, honoring the town's residents who died in the Civil War, was the name Benjamin F. Losee. And so my first lesson in genealogy research was learned; that every answer leads to more questions. Now I had to figure out how Aunt Jeannette was related to Poppy AND how I must be related to Benjamin F. Losee.
30+ years later, I am still at this genealogy game and I still have more questions before me.
Thanks, Aunt Jeannette.
#52ancestors
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