Thinking about Geneology

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.