CALLA LILY AND GENEAOLOGY

Today’s flower is a Calla Lily. If memory serves, this plant was here when I moved in eons ago. Since then, I have divided and moved it to a few different places in the yard, but, it has also crept into other places without my assistance. I assume that it sends out roots (really long ones)   beneath the ground and then pops up. I have attempted to removed it from at least one location and no matter what I’ve done, it still comes back.

I heard somewhere that this lily is considered the death lily or the lily people would send when someone died. I don’t know if this is true and don’t care enough to do any research to find out. I do know that when you try to dig it up, it has all these little knobs that fall off and back into the soil. If it is truly the death lily, then whoever gave it that name got it wrong because in my garden it doesn’t die no matter what.

          Genealogy is going to sort of be my topic for today’s post, mainly because I heard from my third/fourth cousin about another individual who’s trying to trace family through 23 and Me. Now I joined 23 and Me I don’t know how many years ago because I wanted to find my biological father. I did everything I needed to do, only to find out I wouldn’t be able to trace him unless a male on my biological father’s family were to join 23 and Me. At that point, there were no relations listed that would meet that criteria. So, I gave up.

          Some time later, I received emails from two women who were related to me as third/fourth cousins. I responded that I had stopped my genealogy research and why. I included the name of the man purported to be my father. One of the women pointed out to the other that there were Churchwells in the research she had done. Thanks to the two of them, I did find my biological father. I’d been unable to find him before because he went by his middle name and I didn’t know his first name.

In fact, the one cousin Sharon, is a genealogy wizard. She has traced her family back to the signing of the Magna Carta. That was over five years ago, so she’s probably gone even further back. In any case, the three of us met up in Oregon and Sharon had made copies of information for me and the other cousin. She had also pulled out the entire section on the Churchwell family.

Back home, I sat down and composed a letter to the person who just might be my half-brother. I explained who I was, how I thought we were related and told him a bit about myself so he wouldn’t think I was a nutjob. I mailed the letter on Wednesday and the following Wednesday, my half-brother Ricky called me and we had a very nice chat. He was more than willing to submit his personal spit to 23 and Me to see if we were, indeed, related. And yes, we were.

This was in May five years ago and I decided I would go to Tennessee in September to meet Ricky and whatever family wanted to meet me, the long-lost, but totally unknown daughter/sister/niece. I know how things work in the south and had to politely and firmly insist that I would drive myself to the little town where Ricky lived and stay in the local motel. I wanted to be sure to give each of us breathing room just in case we weren’t compatible.

Brother Ricky & Moi

It was an amazing visit. Ricky held a fish fry for me on the Sunday after my arrival. All my father’s brothers and sisters in the area attended. My older half-brother wanted no part of me, however, so I never met him. His ex-wife and two daughters came though and I’m still in touch with one of the daughters. My father’s best friend even came, so I got to meet him too. My one aunt who lives in Memphis made a copy of the genealogical work she’d done for me to take home…what an incredible gift.

Ricky’s wife Tomia put together a photograph album with pictures of family that she had copied and identified who everyone was…another incredible gift. Ricky and Tomia drove me all over the place while Ricky identified the various locations and who had lived there, i.e., grandparents, great grandparents, and told me stories about the various individuals as well as our father. They also took me to the Churchwell cemetery which was just across the road from the business my father and then Ricky owned.

I was also introduced to another cousin Billy who is related to my cousin Sharon. It was because of her research into that family that she found the information about mine. Billy and his wife joined the three of us and we visited Billy’s family’s cemetery and had lunch after. I took a bunch of photographs which I intended to send to Sharon but never did. As a result of the email earlier this week, I asked Sharon if she’d like to have them as well as a copy of the Churchwell genealogy my father’s sister had compiled. Of course, she said yes which is why when I went to get the photographs out of the closet, I gathered those up first and why this post is more toward the end of my life than the beginning. I did get those photos out too, however, so there’s more to come.

On Monday, I’ll go to the UPS store and have the Churchwell genealogy copied…too much for my little printer. Then, I’ll package it all up and send it on with a little note. I’ll end that note by asking Sharon just how far back she’s traced relatives now. I know there’s all kinds of information out there and genealogy is fascinating. I also find it quite confusing and wish Sharon lived nearby so she could mentor me. Without that, I think the genealogical information I now have will be as far as I take it. Maybe one day one of my kids or grandkids will find it and decide they want to know more.