I have a family!

I am so incredibly happy today! I took a leap of faith last night and signed up for a 14 days free trial membership at Ancestry.com. Now, to the average person this may not mean a lot, at least from my experience, but let me explain something. I have grown up in envy for people who know their history. People who's families kept photos and heirlooms and have stories to tell. People who know their cousins. While my mothers side of the family has had a few stories here and there, very few photos existed and we only really knew our mothers parents as kids and a couple of aunts and uncles and cousins that we only seem once a summer if that or when someone would pass away. We never really KNEW any of them. my father was taken away from his birth mother when he was very little and aside from his parents names, which we still don't even know if their accurate or the correct spellings of, we have kinda grown up in the dark. It has always bothered me that I knew so little about where I came from and I am so happy this morning to tell you WE ARE ON THE MAP!! HAHA! I have in the last 24 hours found a great deal of information out about my mothers side and been able to trace them back to my mothers fathers, great, great, great, great, great grandparents!! This stuff is amazing. Birth and death records, census records, World War I draft registration cards, personal stories and I feel.......tearful in some way and validated if that makes sense. Our family has history! I have 13 days still, to try to find information on my fathers birth parents, I have a feeling from what I have been told the little knowledge there is that none of it is going to be good but serve as interesting fact if nothing else. I plan to utilize every bit of these 14 days to find what I can. This story touched me. Someone posted this story, it is about my grandfather Franklin Hurley Ware who to date, remains my most favorite and loved blood relative I've ever known. I adored my grandfather so much. At 3am I cried reading this story that was posted"

"In the summer of 1990 my husband Chris Ware and his parents Tom & Evelyn Ware made a trip to Paris, KY to visit his family.  We visited with his great uncle Franklin Hurley Ware Sr.  Family members call him Hurley.  He was 90 years old.  Tom Ware had not seen his uncle Hurley Ware Sr. in years and was glad to make the trip with us.  Hurley had lived in Paris, KY for a long time and his occupation was a horse trainer.  Hurley could give us some information about his mother Katie Baber-Ware and how young he was at age 6 when she died in 1905.  He could remember when his mother would sit mending socks and rocking his baby sister Annie Mae Ware in her cradle and singing an old gospel song as she rocked Annie.  Hurley could remember the song and he began to sing it to all of us.  Hurley said his sister Annie died very young.  When his mother Katie died at age 31 she left behide four small children for his daddy Martin Thomas Ware to raise.  His daddy never remarried and lived alone for 42 years after Katie died.  We also made a visit to see Hurley' son Franklin Hurley Ware Jr. and his wife Lorene.  Then we went on to visit Hurley Ware Sr. niece Mary Ellen White-Franklin a daughter of Nettie Ware-White who married Dave White."

I never knew that my grandfathers mother died when he was only six years old, and his sister died very young as well.  His father never remarried and remained alone all of those years. She must have been his one true love. :) That warms my heart and saddens me at the same time. To picture my grandfather telling these old stories about his mother and signing a song she use to sing to them just touched me in such a way.....confirming once more why I love him so much and offering some insight I have felt so neglected and thirsty for all of these years. Shocked that his father married a 4th cousin....times were different I guess....

This is a photo of my "Papaw" and I wish that today's youth would grasp how important it is to endure and take as much in from their grandparents as they can cause a day will come...that you will swear you would offer a limb to be able to have just one talk with them. To just ask about their lives and their history and their era...I'd give anything to have just a few moments with him just once more.
So much more to come from me about this subject, bare with me I feel like I have found a treasure chest. I feel....validated and walk with my head high today with pride and a HISTORY. If only I could find some information on my fathers real family members, brothers and parents he never knew...
And so I sign off today, close to getting ready for work thinking about Papaw...and the one song that probably reminds everyone of their grandfather, but because I knew so little all of my life, this song always really touched me....<3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B_XlzowPMM

:) Man I miss him where I hear this song.