My Dad is into genealogy. I like it, too, but he's retired and has more time to devote to it. He really got into it when Teddy was born and seems to be back into it now that his first granddaughter will arrive any day. He's been inputting all sorts of stuff into ancestry.ca (which allows all sorts of cool cross-referencing with other trees) and is all excited to be sharing this information, first documented by my great, great Aunt Helen (my namesake, as I'm Sarah Helen) in the 1950s.
Anyway, I was playing around on the family tree and I noticed something kind of interesting. My major life events appear to be taking place exactly one hundred years after those of my great grandmother (Aunt Helen's sister, my Grandma's Mom).
Olive Esther Delmage was born in May of 1878; I was born in October of 1977. She married my grandfather, George Elmer Hawley, in Feb. 1904, while Dave and I were married in October of 2004. She had her first child, my great uncle Howard in 1908; if I hadn't miscarried before I had Teddy, I'd have had a baby in 2008 (as it was, Teddy was born in early 2009). I am having my 2nd child much earlier than she had hers, but still - I think it's kind of cool.
Today is the 59th anniversary of her death. I hope to be longer-lived than she was, as she died of leukemia in her 74th year. I guess we will see. I can't help but feel close to her, though. We have her old rocking chair in Teddy's room and I love to think of her, rocking her little boy the same way, one century ago.
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So do I sense an "Olive' in her name? (= I mean, besides the obvious 'Leanne'...??
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Brad Way a cousin of yours and I just stumbled upon your blog because I was researching our Great Great Grandmother. Like you, I am trying to follow in the footsteps of those that have done this before me of tracing back our roots. I do understand your Dad received a book that my Nan (Evelynn) gave to your grandmother (Aunt Mary as I call her). I sent your father an email the other day and because I am getting right into this whole geneolgy thing myself I would love to meet with him for a coffee. Anyway my reason for saying that is I only had an old email and I wanted to make sure if he didn't receive it that you might possibly pass along the message. Anyway, I am now going to creep the rest of your blog.
Brad