If you do any genealogical research at all, you will discover challenges, including the challenges involved in simply researching your ancestors. Because if nothing else, the study of genealogy teaches every would-be genealogist about reslilience. Or at least it should, accordiing to the Family Search blog. I know when I look at the lives of my ancestors, I sometimes wonder how they managed to get through the challenges, difficulties, and tragedies of their lives.
However, in thinking about this prompt, I decided to focus on ancestors with a much closer connection β my grandparents, Leone Catharine Lang Byrd and Everett Ernest Byrd. She was 19; he was 26, a larger gap in age than I had realized. By the census, he was working as a laborer on the roads β my mom said digging ditches β as part of a public works program.
His draft card said he had auburn hair and brown eyes, but by the time I came around, he had almost no hair. No one knew who they were. And I was. Fortunately, that only happened once or twice. Now I know people disapprove of corporal punishment, and with good reason, but when Grandma or my parents spanked me, I always knew they got no joy from the task.
It was just the way things were back then. Still, they seemed to enjoy it, so who am I to question? When you read this, their lives sound unexciting, but imagine losing your rented home and all your belongings in a fire in the middle of the night, when you have two small children. Think about uprooting your family to move hundreds of miles away to find a job so you can support them.
These, dear readers, are challenges! These are the same challenges many illegal immigrants faced, and they made similar choices. In fact, I know when my ancestors to this country and we are talking centuries ago, mostly when they were still colonies , they probably came for the same reasons β a chance at a better life, and maybe the opportunity to practice their religion as they saw fit.
