Thursday, January 4, 2018

52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks - Week 1

I have wanted to do this for a few years, but was unable join the project at the time of it's starting until this year. Thanks Amy Johnson Crow for this project.

The prompt for this week is Start. I immediately thought, so, how did this family history thing all start? It was my grandmother's fault. Her name was Della Alexander Jaynes, and she made me want to know where I came from. She was always telling me about her family. She always had a story that was spell-binding to me. She gave me my love of books, and we spent many hours in the library. She took care of the family graves, so I spent many hours with her making sure family graves were tidy.

She even gave me my name, which is actually Sherida. A friend of hers lost a child named Sherida, and I was named for her. The only place I saw my name while growing up was on a gravestone. I suppose most children would be creeped out by that but I was fascinated. Last year Newspapers.com started carrying our local paper and my daughter gave me a subscription as a gift. I looked the girl up. She was as beautiful and talented as my grandmother had said. She died of scarlet fever. It was all very sad.

Anyway, that was the beginning of my interest. In the mid-seventies, I started collecting more than stories. I began to put the pieces together and writing it down. Unfortunately, I did not know what I was doing. I learned as I continued, which made for a very messy file. A couple years ago I started Thomas MacEntee's "Do-Over", and I have a much nicer and better sourced file that is coming along nicely. I am going to put the file on Ancestry for the first time, very soon. I hope to make great strides this year.

This post is all about "Start". How I started and since I am number one in my file it is also about me. I am a cancer survivor, so far. I am 4 1/2 years out from a bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). I have cGVHD (chronic Graft versus Host Disease), which is my body battling itself. It has been severe, but I am still here. The heavy meds that I had to take have taken their toll. I am in a wheelchair and not able to go like before. There is a good chance that will change in time. I want no pity. I have watched as many have died. I am very blessed. How many of you know someone, have heard of someone or are battling cancer? That is all I hear anymore. In the time from my diagnosis and treatment, my step-sister was diagnosed, treated and died from breast cancer. I'm 63, she would have been 52 now. My cancer was caused by the chemical benzene, hers from her family history.

Well, I also have time to work on my file right now, which is a good thing, right? I am a quilter and a crafter with many projects that I want to do. I am also the County Coordinator for the Jackson County and Bartholomew County, Indiana GenWeb sites that I am constantly working on. So I stay busy.

I have two daughters, a great son-in-law, and three grandchildren, all teenagers now.

From this point on it will be about my ancestors. At least 52 of them. 

#52 Ancestors

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