My grandparents on my mother's side were Ukrainian immigrants from Vienna (which was at the time Austria-Hungary and contained the Ukraine). My dad's ancestors were coal miners in Wales, and they continued as coal miners in central PA (my grandfather died of black lung disease 5 months before I was born).
But it was because of my mother-in-law that I really started digging into genealogy. She doesn't have a blue-blooded Mayflower family, but she does have an amazing amount of oral history about previous generations. She even possessed some letters that her great-great uncle sent home during the Civil War.
One year I decided to join a genealogy website and research her family tree. Turns out on her paternal grandfather's side, the line goes back to a chemist in England and somebody from the 1600s in Germany. The German emigrated to what was the Colonies before the Revolutionary War! They had something to do with boats after they got here. That's all I know--but cool!
Her paternal grandfather's brother was the shortest man to enlist in WWI in the state of PA. He was in the Cavalry; however, at the end of the wat, the Army converted the Cavalry units, which were becoming obsolete, to the hot new idea--the air Corps. Her great uncle was then stationed at Ft.Oglethorpe, GA, where he trained young aviators how to play polo!
Her great-great uncle on her maternal grandmother's side was a Union soldier, who signed up for the steady wage (they were poor). He joined what was once a very famous regiment, noted for their crackshot abilities; however, the original group was all but wiped out in the battle of Chancellorsville, so he joined the replacement crew, who had a whole lot less prowess.
He spent most of his enlistment in camp; that's the place where he sent most of his letters from, plus a bone ring to his sister. His regiment fought at the Battle of Gettysburg and is listed on the plaque; however, our relative's name is not on it: he was sick at the time in a hospital in Phila. In fact, he was sick for most of the time. I don't think he was ever completely well.
He was captured in the first battle of the first morning of the Battle of the Wilderness and shipped down to Andersonville Prison. He was later transferred to Florence Prison in SC. Near the end of the war the prisoners were pardoned and sent to Wilmington, NC. He was immediately sent to the hospital in the City Hall, where he died before he could enjoy his freedom. That was 1864: his mother didn't see a dime of his pension until 1890!
In 2006 I took my mother-in-law on a road trip through NC and Georgia. She found the grave where her Civil War great-great uncle is buried: #1002, under a huge magnolia tree. (We were so glad that the Lord gave him a dignified and lovely grave). We also visited the remains of Ft. Oglethorpe and saw the brick house where her polo-playing great uncle probably lived. We were able to identify the buildings from a picture postcard from the 20s I found on Ebay. Nowadays the barracks are used as housing for migrant workers.
Finally, I wrote the story of every branch of her family tree (with all the facts I gathered, plus pictures, newspaper clipping, and rubber stamps) and put them in seven large scrapbooks. I had unusual success: the newspaper from her very small, unsophisticated hometown in central PA had backcopies since 1900 uploaded to the ancestry website, so I had much more proof and documentation than I ordinarily would have had.
There was news of her birth in March, 1935: the doctor came to her house, and the delivery cost $35.
All in all, I had a blast!
