Spokane, Washington, and Meeting More Family

I knew that this trip to take my father back home to Seattle would feature some genealogy research for our family tree, but I had no idea how far this would go.

We met with my husband’s family in Ohio, then newly discovered members of my father and my family in Michigan, and today I spent with relatives of my mother, learning about the other side of my family tree. Wow!

My relatives in Spokane have saved tons of documents, letters, essays, and notes from their family members now past, including fabulous stories of growing up in Michigan and making the long trek to Washington State, and making their way in the new Pacific Northwest Frontier. I’ve copied hundreds of pages and can’t wait to read through them and learn about life 40, 50, 60, and even 100 years before I was born. I’ve learned that I come from a long family of storytellers.

I will be starting a website soon dealing with my family roots, tree, and genealogy, so stay tuned for news. This has been very exciting and I’ve been learning so much about my relatives and the pursuit of genealogy, a hobby I’ve dabbled in since I was a young teenager. So I’m looking forward to sharing the new things I learn with you and other family history researchers.

So we’re almost home. I’m tired beyond imagination. I have barely slept during this entire trip, and not much during the past few months, monitoring my father’s odd nightly habits and alert to his wandering in the night. While I may not have children, I’ve definitely experienced what it is probably like having children with long nights of constantly waking up to check, feed, and change them. It isn’t the same, but there is a familiarity with the sleepless nights and exhausting days, according to friends.

I just want to get to my mother’s, sleep for three days, and then spend 3 hours soaking the filth of travel off of me. I’ve gone three to five days without a shower during this trip, pushing my normal cleanliness limits. The longest before was 4 days and we were in the backwoods. I is stinky!

I have been productive during this long trip across the United States, so look forward to tons of articles and series coming at you soon.