This is one of my great-grandfathers, my father's, mother's father. He was born in about 1879. At the time he married my great-grandmother he was living in Hammersmith, London, and was a tunnel digger on the London underground. He came to the US seeking opportunities and safety from the impending War (World War I.) He continued to do tunnel work, some subway work in New York and Mexico City, mostly water inlet tunnels around the Great Lakes. He helped build the road tunnel from Detroit to Canada.
I heard so much, my great grandmother lived with my grandparents when I was a teenager (she outlived both of my grandfathers.) I have photos, and documents, I feel that I know him, but he died around the time I was born.
Do you have ancestors you feel you know, but never really met?
Many. My father did his family history in great detail on both his sides. So I do feel like I know them and certainly answers where I got some of my interests from.
ReplyDeleteThere is always that one uncle
DeleteSadly, no. The stories I was told were always too shallow to make me feel I knew these people.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's family was a great mystery to me,
DeleteNo, but I've met plenty I feel I'll never know (and a few I wish I didn't)
ReplyDeleteSassybear
www.idleeyesandadormy.com
J wonders why I bother to maintain contact with one, good question,
DeleteWell... there's Hadrian, Louis XIV, Franz Josef...
ReplyDeletemy father's side; I don't know much about them. my grandfather and great grandfather died before I reached 5; both of them came from manchester, england. I saw pictures while growing up, but I don't "know" them.
ReplyDeletemy father's mother was nicknamed "the bitch", cause she was a hateful, spiteful skank.
Anne Marie...it's a miracle you turned out so caring and sweet from the horror stories you've told me. We are glad to have you.
Delete4 years of therapy helped me, maddie.
DeleteI can't think of one that I never met but I did admire a great-uncle who was rather dashing when he was young. I met him once when I was very little but the pictures and stories about him always hit a cord with me.
ReplyDeleteMy paternal grandfather has some interesting siblings, I wish I knew more of them,
DeleteMy Great-Grandfather's brother, because the one photograph I have of him, and possibly the only photo of him, he looks like me ... or I look like him. Odd to find that.
ReplyDeleteI look like a very distant great-grandfather, one that was an officer in the war of 1812.
DeleteThat's why family stories and family history are so important, to give us that sense of knowing our ancestors, even a little bit.
ReplyDeleteBeing remembered, is that immortality?
DeleteI can't say I do. Perhaps you do have to live in close quarters with someone connected to the person.
ReplyDeleteJust heard so much about
DeleteI have heaps. Two of them look down from my office wall.
ReplyDeleteMy great-great-granfather is one handsome dude.