Who Would Have Thought?

Well, I've become a geneaology-aholic. I guess it stemmed from REALLY wanting Greyson to have a grasp on the depth of his roots, from England and Ireland, Scotland and Latvia, Italy... and a few others I've found - like LIBERIA. I don't know. Either she was born there while her English settler parents were there basically running trades, or, a long, long time ago... there was a little bit of African blood introduced into my dad's side of the family. Heh.

Even more interesting is that this woman, the one born in Liberia... is President Thomas Jefferson's great-grandmother. Yes, that's right folks, you heard it here - apparently I am the 10th generation granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. Ha!!! First I find that I have distant grandfathers that were part of the signing of the Mayflower Compact, now this. It's all VERY interesting... from where you find your roots seeking their homelands to where branches just. stop. branching. Because records were burned and traces of ancestry was purposely destroyed, as is the case in many instances of "the white man" marrying or simply fathering a child with a Native American. Hence the NUMEROUS instances of not being able to find birth records, etc. on quite a few of the people on my Dad's side.

My Mom's side? Sheesh. You'd think they would have kept better immigration records. As far as I can tell, even though I even have copies of their photographs from their citizenship completions... they never came from anywhere, because there's no ship records from their actual immigration. So, I can only get a VERY limited distance there, since my mom was the first generation born HERE, and not in Latvia.

Hence why English is actually my Mom's *2nd* language. Though you'd NEVER know it - especially that she didn't speak English until she was 4, and learned it from playing with neighbors from 'down south' - so she first spoke it with a drawl... Maybe that's why she married a man from North Carolina? ROFL

We were actually talking to my dad's *little* brother earlier tonight, the three of us (and sometimes Greyson), me, my dad, and my mom, hanging out around the speakerphone - while my mom and I quietly argued as to whether or not my Dad's drawl still exists in the depth that *I* say it does.

Hell, some of you KNOW my dad. How can you NOT know his roots?!?? LOL

Only time and more sweat and tears delving into these records will show just what else I may uncover for Greyson to stumble upon in his obviously INTERESTING family history.

If only I could uncover more about MetalliDad's side... but that's a WHOLE other post, and probably could spawn a good 10 or more stories all on it's own. Ahh, the wonders of being DEEPLY Italian. Heh.