Hi everyone, I have been spending the past couple of months in search of one of the families on my mother's side...one that has eluded me for a long time. Then today, by mail, I received a copy of papers from the home of my husband's late aunt, Tony Geiger Wike. They are all Xerox copies of memories that Aunt Tony had of some of her family. They refer to her father, Leland Geiger and his sister, and the lessons taught over so many years of living. There is long section dealing with just the vocabulary of the family...the little expressions passed down from a more "genteel" time. It is a fascinating incite into family so long gone. To read it is to almost be there...a picture of the times, the people who lived then, a capture of the personalities. It brought to mind how we have forgotten to remember. To be sure, these papers document but brief highlights of those mentioned. But with them, these individuals have come to life once again. In searching for this elusive family of mine, I have thought more then once of the unusual nature of that family. Here were people that immigrated from Italy at the end of the 1800's. There were a number from the same family. If you map out where they lived, it was within 2/10ths of a mile from one another. And yet no one alive today knows anything about the other families... The cousins attended the same schools, the parents the same churches, but the connections that made them family have disappeared. I have a list of people with the same names but no relationships. I probably know more about people with that last name then anyone else...and I virtually know nothing. It is so sad that the connections were lost. That the commonality has faded as the generations continue. And then I receive these papers and know some of the nature of these people of another family. And I recognize the importance of the stories passed on... not just the names and dates. What I would like to remind everyone is to take the time to jot down your memories of your own family, of what they meant to you. Someday, someone will pass those papers on and they will be invaluable. And while we search back for generations, let us not forget to record what we know best...the current generations. One day they too will have descendents that will be curious to know about these "ordinary" people. To be "alive" in one's memory might be the only immortality any of us will ever really know. Susan