I am writing this all down so my future generations can understand where we came from. Any help to other people is a side effect so I hope help others understand why they are the way they are.
Most of what I found out about my ancestors I am learning from my older brother. He only lives 6 miles away, but we do not see each other often. We talk on the phone every couple weeks. He is eleven years older than me, and my younger brother is 7 years younger than me so we were not close growing up. My younger brother lives about an hour and a half away so we do not communicate much at all.
My dad was really wild when he was young. That is where I get it from. My mom always fussed about my dad's drinking when he was young, and says he ruined his stomach. That is why he had a lot of stomach problems when he was older. She used to laugh about his racing with his Model T Ford and how they used to race the train to the crossing. One time the train was so close, it ripped the spare tire off the back of the car.
My older son gets his wild side from me too. He used to ride his skateboard down our driveway. It raises about fifteen feet in about two and a half car lengths. He got up to a pretty good speed before he hit the circle. Luckily we were at the end of the beginning of the circle so there was little traffic.
All three of my kids have that never die attitude. But my daughter and younger son are not the daredevils my older son and I are. I feel that is one of the good points of our ancestors. The clan came to the states from Ireland and Scotland during the potato blight of the middle 1800s. There are a lot of Caldwells in the eastern part of the States. There are even a few places named Caldwell. I feel the booze and other problems were brought over along with us. When my older brother and I talk on the phone, we agree we do not have a lot of healthy genes to pass along. But I feel the good sides outweigh the bad ones. If you look up Caldwell on the net there are a lot of professional people among our namesakes.
My ancestors settled in York first, about a half hour away from Lancaster where I grew up. When we took the kids to Gettysburg to tour the battlefield we found on one monument the names of those who fought in the battle. Sixteen Caldwells fought in the three day battle.We don't know how many were direct relation, but none of the 16 were killed. That was a miracle in itself.
About 1930 my dad's dad was coming from York where he had settled up his dad's estate because of his dad's death and was in a car accident. His son in law was driving my dad's brothers Stutz Bearcat auto and someone ran a stop sign near home and hit the car. It veered off the road and my great grandfather was thrown out and hit his head on a rock. His body lived for three days, but he never woke up.When they went to court about the accident the judge told my grandmother she got nothing for his death, since she had four sons to support her. My dad was 18, and his younger brother was 13.
My grandmother was living in the farmhouse with the kids, as my grandfather was a hired hand on a farm. I grew up in the house on the edge of the farm my parents built. Because my grandfather died the farmer needed a new hired hand. My mother's parents were hired hands on a farm about 10 miles away and were looking for a new job. I don't know why. My mom saw the ad in the paper, told her dad and he got the job. My mom's mom was told to use the big house on the farm, but she did not want such a big place to keep up. So my dad's family had to get out of the hired hand's house.My dad stayed as a hired hand in the house.That is how my mom and dad met. I never got to know my dad's dad, but if he had not been killed like he was, I would have never been born. Its funny the hands life deals you sometimes.
My mom's dad eventually bought four lots from the farmer along the road and built his house and sold my parents a lot a lot and mom's brother a lot. Her third brother bought a lot on the far side of the field and built his house. The extra lot beside my parents' became the garden for my mom's dad and my dad to grow their garden. My mom's dad also gardened most of his yard and had a chicken house. The farmer was owed a lot of money a guy could not pay so he got several hundred trees. My family planted the trees in the field and the quarry that was a line mining operation. The property is currently for sale, so the houses and forest probably will be gone and developed.
Its funny how life takes twists and turns, but your life is what you make of it. Start a blog about your life and ancestors, so future generations have an idea where they came from. If I, a 65 year young, not computer smart old dog can be helped to understand how to work these new-fangled machines, you can too. If you do not leave a legacy of where you came from, it will die with you.
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