What's Your History and Who Knows It?

I have a confession to make and I really hate it but it's the way it is and I can't do anything to change it. I know nothing about my family history, at least not any of the things one would like to know I really should say. I don't know where I come from, I can't tell you how many siblings I really have, or even who my father is. No, I am not adopted; yes, I do know where I was born but I don't have a clue what my heritage is. Am I just a mixture, a Heinz 57 type? I cannot tell my children what their heritage is and for that I am disappointed for them.

Today my husband received the news that his Uncle George (his father's oldest sibling and only brother) had suddenly passed away. Uncle George was the family historian per se. He had written two books, more his own biography but with plenty of family history in them as well. I absolutely love the story of how my husband's grandparents, Art & Alice, met. After the stock market crash of 1929, aviation was the up and coming industry. Art, good with his hands, scraped together the money and went to Chicago's Midway airport where you could attend training and become an aircraft mechanic. At the same time, Alice had set her eyes on the same school and training. Yep, she decided to become an airplane mechanic too!

As Uncle George writes, "They sat in the same courses in a sea of young people seeking those exciting new careers and they may never have met if they didn't both sign their tests the same way, A. Swanson. That's where Alice M. met Arthur H. Swanson when the instructor got them mixed up when passing back graded tests. The rest, as we love to say, is history. Wedding bells rang July 15, 1933 making Alice Swanson Alice Swanson!" How cool is that that she didn't even have to change her name?

Is there someone in your family that is the historian? That knows your history and can tell others by passing it down the line? If not, it's never too late to start. Gone are the days that families lived close to one another and shared everything in their life with Uncle Joe, Aunt Sue and all the riffraff cousins down in the "holler". This military life takes us to places we never could have imagined and allows us to become life long friends with others. Include them in your family history. Sometimes the ones not blood-related to us have the most influence in our lives and often times are the ones that offer the most encouragement and support to us. I am so very thankful that I have had those along the way to fill in places that were previously void.

Thank you Uncle George for what you have left behind for us Swanson's. So, what's your history and who knows it?