A Very Cool Family Story

Thanks so much for your very kind and supportive thoughts for my mom and family. I should have explained that we have signed her up for hospice services at her house - we're not moving her. It is a possibility, but not probable. The services are amazing and we are all so grateful for more support. 

My mom was very much interested in genealogy and has done an immense amount of research on both sides of her family tree. She can trace her father's family back to Benefield, North Northamptonshire from where (some of) the family moved to America in the early 1600's!  A few years ago I got deep into her files with her one day and ended up created a family tree on Ancestry.com. But I was doing other things and it has languished. 

A couple of weeks ago a woman from Ohio reached out to me on Ancestry to ask if I knew a Joel Miller Howe. She explained that a friend had found an old bible in an antique store and had given it to her. As it turns out, Joel is my great, great grandfather on my grandfather's side (the family that came from England). She was delighted and shipped me the bible and despite my offer, would not let me pay for shipping, declaring that the bible belonged in the family.

I decided to give my mom this bible as an early Christmas present today when I went to visit. It couldn't have been a better present. I don't know if you can see it clearly (maybe look at it full screen) but we discovered that Joel would have been 203 years old TODAY! 

We looked all through the bible and found some interesting articles cut out of old newspapers and a couple of obituaries and read them all out loud. Then we got mom's genealogy files out of the closet and looked through some of the work that she'd done. Really amazing, and really perfect. Both my sister and brother were there at different times and were thoroughly engaged as well. Cool story, huh?