I suppose I might have spent a good part of my life wondering why my greatgrandfather lost his eyesight and am still not sure if that was genetic or otherwise but I did make one amazing discovery in my research. He was caught up in the 1864 Georgia Militia Census called by Governor Brown and wound up being a guard at Andersonville Prison at the age of 46. In reading a lot of information pertaining to that place, one of the most frequently diagnosed "diseases" was "moon blindness". Still didn't sink in, except that I thought "OK, if I look at the moon long enough as those soldiers did, then I might not could see too well either." BUT, last year when the long-awaited full impact of the moon reached its closest point to earth in its orbit and was at its brightest, it finally sunk in. Did you know that in the time span the heavenly bodies took to reach that point, it happened the last time during the the Civil War years?? The moon the prisoners were looking at, while confined to Andersonville, was reaching its fullest impact and did not occur again until last year. Amazing that we were looking at the same phenomena that they were so many long decades ago. Jane ---------- > From: Sharon <shadri@perry.gulfnet.com> > To: GA-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [GA-Roots] D Digest V00 #247/Why Do We Do Genealogy > Date: Sunday, August 13, 2000 10:04 PM > > >From: Debbie Isaza > Why do we do genealogy? Is it to put names and dates on paper? Or is it > to put the lives of our ancestors into our understanding?