Ancestor Encounters

In the midst of strife I found there was within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was within me an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos I found there was within me an invincible calm. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lay an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no m... atter how hard the world pushes against me, within me there's something stronger... ~Albert Camus How beautiful the notion that we have the power to walk through storms with calm and courage. Albert Camus wrote his poetic words in 1952, several years prior to my own birth, but they resonate in 2020, the year of fear and turmoil for so many around the world. May 2021 be a year of peace and light. Granddad grew up longing to know something about his mother's family. His mother avoided the subject of her family and questions asked about ancestry were never answered. As an only child whose father died in WWII, Grandad's questions about family were important to fill the empty spaces. After his mother's death we looked for clues for several decades hoping to find something in records or artifacts that would tell us where she came from. There was an old school book with a Virginia address inscribed on the front page, a story about her mother named Ruth, and several anecdotes about an old southern plantation that just didn't seem to fit anywhere in the ancestral picture. Hired researchers, ordered documents, hours online and in archives pouring through records, we always hit brick walls. Suddenly last year Granddad remembered visiting a family in Baltimore on Southern Avenue that he thought might have been relatives. Having long ago run out of any other leads, we looked in census records to see what we could find. Only one family in that area matched the description, so in-depth research on the occupants of that home in Baltimore led to a woman named Ruth... Ruth was the great great grandma we had been searching for, although it took some detective work to piece together ...Read More