Author: handicraftsowl

Grammy

Some grandchildren pick the name they call their grandparents. I picked “Grammy”, and it seems to have stuck. I like it a lot because it sounds like I won an award. I didn’t want to be called “Granny” or “Grandma” because I think those names made me sound old. I sure don’t feel like a “Memaw” or a “Nana” and I didn’t want to use some exotic name like “Oma” or “Babushka”. “Grammy” just seemed to fit the best. And, luckily, my grandson seems to think so, too.

A Grammy’s job is never done and we have a lot of duties. One of my favorites is singing to my grandson. I even learned how to play a few songs on the ukulele. “You are My Sunshine” is our favorite song. Another Grammy duty I love is reading. Right now, we are reading the original 1899 version of The Wizard of Oz. Did you know Dorothy’s shoes were originally silver, not ruby?

Francophile

I am a huge Francophile, which means I love all things French. The language, the food, the country, the culture. I have always had an affinity for France, even before I found out that I had French ancestors.

I remember in Junior High, we had an assignment to make a coat of arms and to fill each quadrant with something that had meaning to us. In one quadrant, I put a painter’s palette because there are several artists in my family, one quadrant had a stack of books because we are avid readers, one quadrant had some gardening tools because my grandpa was amazing and could grow just about anything. And in the last quadrant, I put the French flag because I thought our family was French. I got an A on the assignment and was so proud to show to my grandmother. When I did, she asked me why I had put a French flag on it. I told her it was because we are French. She asked me where I got that idea and told me that we weren’t. I was devastated because I was sure that we were. Fast forward about 20 years and I found my French ancestors while researching our family tree. Ironically, they were on her side of the family. I don’t know why, but I felt vindicated.

It turns out my French genes are strong. I spent a summer in France in a French immersion language program. I had only taken one semester of French before I went, but I tested at the beginning of the second year on the placement exam. I felt so at home there. Within two weeks, I was dreaming in French, and was even mistaken for a local one day while I was shopping. That was a great feeling.

Creative

I have been creating art and handicrafting for as long as I can remember. The earliest thing I remember making was in 3rd grade. It was a little monster made out of clay that was painted and fired. We each took a ball of clay and stuck our thumbs into them to make a bowl shape, then we decorated them to look like cute little monsters. After that, I was hooked.

My parents were very creative, too. My Mom was an amazing seamstress. She sewed clothing for us and I remember my Barbie dolls being the best dressed dolls around. She also crocheted and she taught me to knit. My Dad was the artist. He was a photographer and painter. He even painted his own backdrops for his photography studio. So, you see, creativity is in my genes.

Blue Eyes

Everyone in our family has blue eyes. All my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings and children. Everyone except for my one nephew, who has brown eyes. We jokingly call him our changeling!

Our blue eyes are very striking, too. Some people call them electric blue. I call mine “mood ring eyes” because they change color depending on what I am wearing. They don’t actually change color, they just reflect the color of my clothing or even my eye makeup. I often get asked if I am wearing colored contact lenses.

Some interesting facts about blue eyes:

• Only about 8 percent of the world’s population have blue eyes and they are typically people from nationalities found near the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.
• There is no blue pigment in blue irises. Blue eyes have less melanin than brown eyes and get their color the same way water and the sky does — they scatter light so that more blue light reflects back out.
• All blue-eyed people may have a common ancestor. According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, a genetic mutation in a single individual that lived in Europe between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago led to the development of blue eyes, and is therefore the likely cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed people alive today.

So, if you have blue eyes, we may be cousins!

This is a scrapbook page I did for my ABC Book of Me. I am definitely an Ancestor Detective. Doing genealogy is like solving a mystery. You start with just a few facts, you search for clues, then you evaluate the evidence you find.

Ancestry.com is my hero and I am not getting paid to say so. My parents had both passed away before I was ten years old, so I didn’t know much about my family. I started my family tree with only my Mom and Dad, my Dad’s parents and siblings, and my four cousins. I didn’t know much about my Mom’s side of the family at all, and nothing beyond my paternal grandparents. But it can be done. As of today, I now have over 4300 people in my tree and have even met some of my long lost relatives.

So far, I haven’t found any criminals, pirates, or other scoundrels. But I have found a lot of pioneers and patriots. I have tracked several of my lines going back to Revolutionary War veterans and some of my Pruyne ancestors were early settlers in the colony of New Amsterdam, which later became New York state.

As a veteran myself, I was very happy to find my family has a long history of military service. I served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm, my parents were both in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. I have ancestors who served in WWI, and WWII, fought for the Union during the Civil War and several ancestors who fought in the Revolution. And the tradition continues as my nephew is currently serving in the Army.