Scottish, English, Cherokee...oh my!

Genealogy and the discovery of Ancestry.com, that's what happened.  Researching family history has been a fleeting hobby over the years so I had a five generation head start - including full names, birth and death information - which has made it fairly simple.  Yes, it's simple, but also ridiculously time consuming.  I'm either a super star researcher or my knack for solving puzzles translates to this kind of stuff, because I kicked this family tree's ass.  That, and I have to thank the Mormon's for keeping meticulous genealogical records.  Big ups to the Mormons!



We'd always assumed Kennedy was Irish.  Ah...no.  On the maternal side, the Kennedy branch resulted in Scottish Royalty with Robert Bruce I, the King of Scotland (Robert the Bruce - remember that for a minute), and another branch led me straight to Edward the III, the KING OF EFFIN' ENGLAND, then Edward II, Edward I (also known as The Hammer and Longshanks).  You don't have to know English/Scottish History to sort this out, but if you ever saw Mel Gibson's, Braveheart, you'll have the gist of it.  Robert the Bruce and Longshanks were on opposite sides of the big battles at Stirling Bridge and Fallkirk with William Wallace stuck fighting smack in the middle between them.  Robert eventually won the Scottish crown and things got a whole lot worse.  In that huge cornerstone chunk of Scottish/English history, our bloodline was on both sides of conflict, not only peripherally, but at the epicenter. 

Silly Tim at the Robert the Bruce statue at
Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland 2007 -
I wish I'd known then what I know now
about the family history

Toss in William the Conqueror in there and Phillip of France, a step back into the Scottish Royalty pool and that's about as far out I looked and as royal as it gets.  Crazy.  The Smith line on the maternal side led me to Cherokee.  So far so good, Royalty and Cherokee.  Stone led me to early colonists and the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Paternal Thompson (Granny Bob) goes straight to Wales and then staunchly lies Scotland, while paternal Taylor (Granny Bob) led me to a Civil War soldier or two, a Civil War POW, to early colonists and eventually France aristocracy.  Ancestry.com has census data, military draft/registration info, and lots of other historical documents that are just plain cool to read and attach to your tree.  So far I've gone back to the early 1200's on some branches, early 1600's on others and have been thrilled to bits to find each new connection.  I've had so much fun doing this and even more fun sharing it with Bob, Tara and extended family but holy hell, it's time to get back to work on this book stuff. 

Maybe this triple dose of Scot is what draws me to the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon and makes me love Jamie Fraser so fiercely.  I digress...probably shouldn't even get started on Jamie, should I?  I do love a man in a kilt.   

I'll leave you to ponder my new royal, Cherokee name: Her Royal Highness Micha Nanokachakee Stone.  Distracto girl out.  Serious book-writing girl will be back next week.  Promise. 

Charles' Mythical Memorial

It DOES exist!  This is such a huge, emotional find for me that I'm all sniffly and I can barely see the computer screen because the tears just won't stop. 

Since the late 90's, when the organization who was trying to establish the memorial contacted G-Bob to notify her of their intent, this has been a big deal. Originally this memorial was to be placed sometime in 2000, but they lost funding.  Then the man who was organizing this and many other European memorials for US Service Men, died in 2003, and I just didn't think anything would come of it.  Last I heard, it was being left to the villages to raise the funding and to complete the memorial - but I never thought there was a chance in hell that even if it was placed, that I'd ever know about it.  And today, in the middle of procuring and requesting service records, accident reports and the like for both Granddaddy Bill and for Charles, I found this and it took my breath away. 

The fact that one of my favorite photos of him is engraved on a memorial that technically honors three fallen US Military men is pretty awesome.  The fact that the same photo is the only real photo on the blog frame (see left side bar), makes it even more spectacular, and unbelievable. 

I thought that all this time I was writing this story for me and that G-Bob, Tara, Pete, and Michelle were just going to be able to enjoy seeing it come to life.  Today, I can't help but feel like it's all for Charles.  I feel as if  he's taken me by the hand and is leading me along, making sure that I don't miss anything.  Like he's letting me know it doesn't matter how detailed my outline is, or how perfect the manuscript is - as long as I finish and his story gets told, no one will forget. 

Thank you, Charles.  I am overwhelmed and Barbara is going to be so proud.