Pay Off For Family Tree research.

[Danustouch]

Well, I've been doing my family tree research for a long time now, and part of the reason we were doing it, was to have it put together in time to give my Grandfather for his 85th birthday. Last weekend, John and I traveled back to CT to attend this event. My mother and I presented him with the book about our family tree , as well as a birthday card from our newly discovered relatives in Ireland. Grandpa was a little overwhelmed at the dinner, looked through it briefly, patted it reverently, then mouthed the words "Thank You" to me, from across the room. He then passed the book around, for all the other relatives to see. I still wasn't sure how much of it My Grandfather would actually read, and absorb. He's 85, and his health is failing, I didn't know if he'd really be able to read the whole thing. Once again, I was surprised by the strength in my Grandpa, and how alert he is for a man his age. This is a note my mother sent me, regarding a phone conversation she had with my Grandfather yesterday. This made it all worth all of the research and frustration of conducting such a project :

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Jean,
I just got off the phone with Grandpa. Peggy Presson had asked me for a copy of the History of Ulster Plantation. I asked Grandpa if he could get it to her if I drop it off to him. I was sure he would enjoy doing that.
I asked him if he had a chance to read the book, and he said he read it from front to back and then from back to front again. Sounds like he enjoyed it!

************************************

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

[Man/Wolf]

You must have a good feeling in your heart! That was very thoughtful of you! Even if he hadn't read a page, he appreciated your thinking of him.

[GreenDawn]

Oh how awesome! It does make you feel better when you give a gift from the heart (and sweat) of your soul! You just gave him the greatest gift he probably ever received.

As you get older, you appreciate the thought and time took for a gift over the cost and where you bought it. It makes me miss my grandparents!

I am so happy for you.

[Dancin Girl]

That is awesome! sometimes we don't all of the work and frustration that we put into those family histories is going to be appreciated by anyone else but ourelves. I know when I started, my Mom was less than thrilled, but before she died, she held my hand one night in the hospital with tears in her eyes and whispered, Thank you for finding everyone for me. She had a lot of missing close family members that she always worried about but never said much about it.

May Your Grandfather have many more healthy years left to share his life and his special history with all of the new family members you find along the way!!

[Danustouch]

Thanks Guys :) yep..this truly was a labor of love :)

[Doctor Oakroot]

Dabbling- The work of lazy people.
Guess your grandfather agrees with you :)

One of my relatives published a book of all the descendents of our common ancestor who immigrated to the US in 1774. It was really interesting and fun seeing all the connections that I previously only had a vague knowledge of.

[Danustouch]

Yeah..I love this stuff:)

[mysticvik]

FOR ABOUT 4 YEARS, IM UP TO 1582 SO FAR

[Danustouch]

Wow! that is amazing!

[Dancin Girl]

I have my Dad's side done back to mid 1600's but have run into a slight problem going further back since the family had a habit of disowning each other, and writing each other out of information and my ancestor seems to have been one of those written out!! So I can't connect him to the rest of the family! My Mom's side is only back to 1800 cause I don't have resources to trace it back in Germany!

[kblackthorne]

Having been raised by my grandparents (with lots of contact with their contemporary friends) I can tell you: The older one gets, the more concerned one becomes with keeping "family history" information from becoming lost.

I'm glad you were able to present this to your grandfather while he was still here & able to appriciate it. So often, this work doesn't get started until after the family Elders have died away...

It had to mean a lot to him. :)

(My husband & I are in the process right now of preserving a bunch of his family photos dating back to the early 1800's. His mother kept them in a box in the garage. We've been putting them -- one by one -- in an archive-quality album, with as much information on each photo as we can gather.) Her reaction when we presented her with just a few album pages was about the same as your grandfather's.)