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Choosing a Second Chance

March 27, 2018 By Patti Gillespie Leave a Comment

The Mistake

I’m a big believer in choosing second chances…or more. Being a slightly (or, more truthfully, extremely) stubborn person, I sometimes seem to insist on making a mistake more times than I can count. Then it takes me some time to actually figure out that my choice IS a mistake. Sometimes it takes eons before I begin to comprehend the relationship between my choices and the consequences of these choices.

Blogging feels a lot like that to me.  I began naively and enthusiastically blogging. Shortly thereafter my professional year became overabundantly over-filled with clients and committees, Pro-Gen and gen assignments, conferences and community responsibilities. My blog quickly attained the unenviable status on my to-do list as the very last thing I thought of before falling comatose into my bed at night.

I literally chose every single day to put my blog last. The benefit of this mistake? I realized that I missed it, and I wanted a second chance.  So, I choose to begin again.

The Choice to Choose

2018 used to be a new year in January, but since it is nearly April, and the year is ¼ through, we could probably agree that 2018 is not actually new any longer. But for my choice to blog again, it is a new year, month and day.

My choice is made, and I will continue (after the one blog I published) to blog about the back stories of genealogists within the genealogy community. I will also continue to blog about the impact of my strange family (after the one published blog) experiences and what used to be referred to as juvenile literature and is now called “young adult” lit. Yes, it is my favorite genre to this day…even at my mature age.

So, here’s to choosing my second chance to blog again…and choosing to enjoy my own voice and views. The twenty-five loyal friends I have that actually read it–be warned! It’s coming!

Join me, won’t you? C’mon, it’ll be fun!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2018, begin again, blog, choices, Family Lines and Stories, genealogists, second chance, young adult

Considering Family in the Family Photo

February 5, 2017 By Patti Gillespie 1 Comment

It is such a wonderful experience sharing memories of our loving family members and remembering an event!  It’s even wonderful watching others share their joys.

But sometimes family photos bring more complicated emotions than happiness. Not everyone has a happy family or has happy memories of family life; it seems most of us have mixed memories of happiness and unhappiness, fear and bravery, brokenness and healing. Or something even darker.

This photo shows my mother and my father. Don’t they look all grown up in their 1950’s make-up and attire? My mother is seated; my father is standing and cutting the cake. They are seated in Don’s home with his father and step-mother looking on, his half-sisters stand round and his brother with his hand on Marion’s shoulder. Marion and Don are viewing the celebratory high school graduation cake in 1954 together in his family’s home.

After graduation, there is a year of college for both. The Autumn of 1955 is followed by Spring and me. With no father.  My mother has no husband, no provider, no in-laws, no child support, and no cake. Well, she does have cake sometimes.  Even her father evicted her.

But this photo also brings me peace. I didn’t know that my mother had a relationship with my father that included his family. I have few photos of her, and I love to look at how beautiful she is.

That little girl standing in her robe looking at the cake with less than enthusiasm grows up to be someone who welcomes me into her life. My father’s half-sister is my half-aunt, but I call her my aunt. We connected carefully on Ancestry when I started my tree, then we graduated to telephone; we met in August 2015 for a weekend.

After returning home, Aunt Linda, despite being busy with life, dug around until she found this photo and shared it with me.

So… this photo of such a complicated relationship and lack of relationship still brings me sadness–but it also brings me more. My aunt gave me a gift of her time and her love, and that brings me happiness.

Even if life doesn’t work the way we want or the way we think it should, there is still a chance that we will find family who care. May someone provide you a family photo, if you need one, someday.

Patti Gillespie, The Gen Lady

Filed Under: Genealogy, Memories, Story Telling Tagged With: blog, donald torres, Family Lines and Stories, family photos, Genealogy, linda torres, marion todd, Patti Gillespie

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Welcome to Family Lines and Stories

Family Lines and Stories is my way of helping to find and tell your family stories—whether it is through professional ancestral research, oral interview, publishing the information, blogging, or fun and instructional presentation. Searching and finding our ancestors and placing them in context with historical events of the nation or even the world is an exhilarating adventure! Let’s find and tell your family story together.

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Patti Gillespie, B.A., M.S.

Genealogist
940-328-2104
FamLStories@gmail.com

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