Thankful Tues.. My Ancestors

I'm choosing this week to be thankful for all those that came before me and made me who I am. I think I always think of Sierra Nevada Little as the matriarch of our family, but there are many many people who have shaped me into who I am. I am in awe sometimes just thinking of our pioneer families and the struggles and hardships they withstood to bring us where we are today.

I love looking at old photographs of both the "Little's" and the "Foreman's" and I love reading biographies about them and just snippets of information that have come from various sources. Some of the stories make me want to cry but mostly they make me laugh!

I have a story about my Great Grandfather Foreman who was shot during the Civil war in his chest and he claims the bullet moved his heart over :) I have read several little antidotes about him and can relate my own sense of humor to his. I can envision the twinkle in his eye.

I also have a great uncle who died in the Civil war in the very town I'm now living in. I have lots of papers about him and the list of belongings he left. It's very sad when ones life comes down to a cardboard card with a list of about 5 things. But he was much more then that to me, he was part of the "Little" side of the family and they were truly pioneers.

I have had the opportunity to visit both battle fields where these two forefather's were injured. I felt a very keen sense of my history while standing there.

I also have many postcards that were written by my great Grandmother Sierra, mostly to my Grandmother. It is almost a sacred feeling to hold them in my hands and think that she once held them and wrote those words. On Sunday May 3 it was her 148th birthday. She was born 100 years before my first daughter. She died long before I was born and my grandmother didn't speak a lot of her but what she did I treasure.

I also love looking at old photographs of both the Foreman's and Little's. When studying them closely, I can see certain physical family traits past down. I have a picture of my Aunt Fanny as a nurse probably in the late 1800's or early 1900's and she looks so much like my mother who also became a nurse.

I also have so many fond memories of my great aunts that we use to visit often while I was growing up. They most CERTAINLY formed me, as to who I am. I remember staying with my Aunt Nellie in Idaho several summer's with my Grandmother and also visiting my Aunt Jessie in Idaho when we would drive that way. I remember going to stay with my Aunt Sophia(auntie as we called her) My grandmother called her Girly, so I never really remember her being called Sophia and that was such a pretty name. I loved staying at her house. And Aunt Mabel..she looked so much like my grandmother and sounded so much like her, I guess that's why I loved her extra special. And on the Foreman side I remember Aunt May but mostly my Aunt Tressa. I really loved her. I can still remember the smell of her house..And she use to let me play with a little china tea set she had.. My mother and grandmother were always appalled that she let me and was afraid I'd break them! but I didn't :) I also was given her antique Pump Organ. It's at our old house in Manchester and in my daughters safe keeping.

Most of all I think I am thankful for my parents and grandparents as they had the biggest influence on my life. A lot to contemplate.. I wish I could work on my families history, but I know of several family member's who do, so I know it will be preserved.

Thank you to all of you who came before me~