LOVE CONTACT FROM FAMILY

Bill Spetsas with cousins Matina and Peter Petropoulos.  Picture taken in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Today I had such a nice surprise!  I received a phone call from Peter who is married  to Matina.  Matina is my mothers first cousin.  I love to listen to their Greek accents!  And such good people, its nice to know we can be related to people with such good hearts.

They have helped me to learn more about my heritage, learning more about living as well as deceased family members.  We had a great talk.

Peter had asked me to help him find some of his relatives,  I love this!  It seems we always get the chance to help someone else regarding the most important thing in our lives.  That is family!

I've noticed that people who are bitten by the genealogy bug, are always willing to help one another in their search for family.

WHAT TO ADD TO A PERSONAL HISTORY

When working on the written history of my mothers family, I like to add additional items besides the genealogy.  People often have events in their lives that document things they accomplished or even items that others have provided in respect to them.

There was a family friend and neighbor who had never written a song before, but he woke feeling impressed to write this song about my mother.  So he got out of bed, sat down and wrote the song.  The original song was titled. "Athena's song" a very nice song, but I later learned  more details about the song.

He had felt impressed the write the song on the early morning of Nov 27, 1997.  He finished it about 11:45 a.m., My mother passed away at 11:50 that very same morning.  It also happened to be Thanksgiving Day which was always her favorite holiday.

I now keep the song in a frame hanging on my wall as a reminder of the good she did in her life and the people she influenced.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

An important part of family history is to write about those family members who have been a part of your life.  This way you make your history personal and not just stats.  It also helps to keep their memory alive.

What got me to thinking about this is that today would have been my first born nieces birthday.  She was only 29 years old at the time she died.  She had suffered with many trials in her life including spine cancer.  When she was a child she spent much of her time living with us, sometimes weeks and months at a time.

While she was ill, I had asked her to write about her life which she did.
In this sweet letter she had told me "I wish you or Gran had been my mother."  How heart breaking for a child to have such a wish.  But the good thing was that she knew who to go to when she needed help and comfort.

Kathleen Athena had such a kind heart.  She was just a little princess, she would  hold up one corner of her dress as she would walk up the stairs.  As a toddler, my  mother told her, "Kathy, you are the grandest of all!"  She then gave  my mother Athena, the nick name of "Granner" which stuck and my mother was never known as Yia Yia or Grandma or any of those names of endearment.  Instead all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren referred to her as "Granner."  How precious memories are as we reflect upon them.

USE WHAT YOU HAVE

Each day I try to spend a little time working on my family's history.  Last night I began going through some old letters and cards.  I want to go through these items and decide which should be included in  my family's history.

It is amazing the information you can find from this old correspondence; but even better the great memories that come flooding back into your mind.

On one occasion I was going through some old letters that I had inherited after my mother passed away.  There was a letter dated 1946 from Greece.  It was from  my great aunt. What was great about this letter is that it described feelings of family members but it also had the families sir name.  My grandfather had changed his sir name when he immigrated, so we were never sure of the family name.  This letter gave us the information we needed to begin our research.

It helped so we  knew what family to look for as well as historical records.  My first visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake, we found over 125 people who I was related to.  What an exciting day!  It was the beginning of a great experience!

COOKING YOUR HERITAGE

I have found it a fun thing  when I started learning how to cook foods that my ancestors made.  This is another experience that helps you to appreciate your family's history.  Find out what kind of dishes your ancestors made and then share with your friends.  Maybe doing a dinner with an International flavor.

Because many of my ancestors were Greek I have enjoyed learning which foods were used for which holidays etc.  The customs teach you a great deal.  Many Greeks social life revolves around food, and you never leave a Greek persons home hungry, but I also learned that it is one of the healthiest diets on the planet, a way of life you might say.  So I  will share some sites that have some great recipes.  Enjoy!