Hi Alice, Thank you for your nice comment about our family story. It is the family stories that keep me involved in genealogy, not the names and dates. However, I'm tremendously grateful to our meticulous, gifted family historians who've had the patience to get the details straight. We've had family reunions for more than a hundred years and in 2003 had a national reunion celebrating the 250th anniversary of our Deeg/Dage/Dague ancestors' immigration to America. The organizers asked me to write an article promoting the reunion. Probably my depiction of our ancestors' journey from Germany to America was too loosey goosey for the purists among our family historians. But I wanted to put a human face on our ancestors and wrote from what I believed could have been their personal perspective. There's a place for that kind of writing of family history, but it needs to be coupled with facts. It draws people to the humanity of our ancestors. It's not possible, though, without the meticulous efforts of our family historians who've patiently researched the facts. Alice, I loved your story about the woman who was able to visit the cottage in Ireland where her ancestors had lived! And how wonderful, that you are able to daily use cooking utensils that belonged to your gg grandmother and your grandmother. How I envy your living in a place where a three and a half mile commute can seems too long. I live in metro Atlanta. That's probably enough of an explanation for my envy. Do you live in Lorain Co.? It's my fault -- I had a choice to stay there after college, but had to do a little exploring and never got back home! Those of you who stayed have a sense of continuity and rootedness that we can never regain. Happy New Year to everyone! Cathy -- Alikat42@aol.com wrote: That was really interesting, altho I am not related to you, I still could picture your gg grandparents in a buggy, plodding along to church -- WOW -- 13 miles! I complained this July when my boss moved our office -- I had been driving only 1.5 miles to work (and in a car, not a buggy) and she moved the office to a nice newer place but I am now driving 3.5 miles. Makes me look like a wimp! :-) As I read about our ancestors, I wonder how they managed to live day- to-day. It had to be really tough without running water and flush plumbing and central heating. I was watching a program on PBS about England and it changing back and forth from Catholic to Protestant 3 times in a 10 year period. As my g grandmother's people were from England and she was a Methodist Episopal, I am assuming they came to escape persecution. The German ancestors (Dad's side) came in the 17 and 18'oos and were all Lutheran. This makes me wish I'd paid more attention in History classes in school. A few years ago I read about a woman who went to Ireland and was able to stand in her many times great grandma's kitchen thanks to the man who presently owned the cottage. I was reduced to tears reading her story. It had to be a goosebump feeling to be standing in an ancestor's home! I have a spoon that belonged to my gg and several that belonged to my grandma -- I use them every day. Yes, they are old and only silver plate, but I love them. It gives me a "closeness" to them. have a wonderful day everyone! Alice ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHLORAIN- request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ FREE Reminder Service - NEW from AmericanGreetings.com Click HERE and never forget a Birthday or Anniversary again! http://track.juno.com/s/lc?s=197335&u=http://www.americangreetings.com/products/online_calendar.pd