While I'm delaying working on my latest story, I'm watching a show called "Who Do You Think You Are?" about celebrities tracing back their family trees with a lot of expenseive help. Like a lot of U.S. citizens, I only have a general idea where the family came from. Except for my great-great grandmother Mary Ann Bowersox Eisenhauer's ancestors (Germany), the rest is family speculation.
Like the celebrity on TV, my great-grandfather James Anderson passed away when my grandfather was three. One of my Dad's cousins had a bible which seemed to indicate that the family came from Pennsylvania. Where before there? We like to think that they ultimately came from Scotland, but with an Anderson name -- could be Scottish, could be Anglicized from any number of European countries.
The same applies with my Mother's family. Cole? My grandmother's maiden name was Stephenson, and the main thing I know about her father was that he was born in the 1830s, fought in the civil war, and didn't marry until 1880 to a 30-year-old wife, and they then had five girls.
Yeah, I know, I could sign up for Ancestry.com -- or I could go to Pennsylvania to find out where the Andersons came from, but, darn it, I don't have the money or the time. And I'm not necessarily that anxious to find out. Like my Mother always said, she always suspected her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary war -- with the Hessians hired by the British.
Maybe it's better I don't find out about my family tree....
On the other hand, I do know I'm a very distant relation to President Dwight Eisenhower and singer Crystal Bowersox. *sigh* That plus a dollar will get me a cup of coffee.
Never mind.
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