Family history. . . Not!

I recently read an article about a man and his wife who live in a stunning castle in Ireland that was built in 1185 from the ruins of a monastery that was built in 633. Are you kidding me? Who lives like this? He also turned half of his castle into a contemporary art museum. That was very cool and then he opened it up to the public.

However, I have to say that by castle standards that really isn't that old but what was fascinating was how he traced back his family history back almost one thousand years and some of the pieces of art have been handed down to his family are just as old as the castle. Holy shmoly! Who in the hell lives like this?

Reading this article got me thinking about my family history. Outside of my grand parents, I got noth'n! My family history only goes back that far? How can this be? How can I know so little about my past. I have a small black and white picture in our home office that shows a man and woman standing together in what looks like a wedding picture and it's my grandmother and my grandfather. You can barely make out the picture and its in a cheap metal frame. My mother gave it to me years ago and there it sits. On the back its says "circa 1920 Grandma Winnie and Granpa Tom". My dads parents and, outside of a few aunts and uncles, that's it, that's all I have!

Jennifer's history is no better and we we're talking about this and how unfortunate it was. We have no family heirlooms or castles to hand down to the family. My dad has a beautiful American Revolutionary rifle hanging above his fireplace but he got it from his elderly next door neighbor who he helped mow the lawn and shovel the sidewalk for decades. Before he died he gave my dad the rifle but no story to go with it. The rifle has incredible history but it wasn't carried by any family member of ours. My dad loved my 1998 Toyota Tacoma truck so much I sold it to him. He said I can have it back when he's dead. I guess that's something.

I would love to have some history, even if it's juicy and bad. Like a murder or even a sex scandal with politics and intrigue. Anything that would be a great story told on Christmas morning or on a cold and dark rainy night next to the fire place. You know the kind of story I'm talking about: my great, great, great, great uncle involved in a murder in 1656 which involves a mistress and her dead husband along with a maid and the Lord of the Land. The church would get involved, of course, and so would the magistrate. They flee in the middle of the night as stow aways on a sailng ship full of supplies to the new world and their great great grandchild is a signer of the Declaration of Independence! All that good stuff! What do I have? My dad married his high school sweet heart and my grand parents grew up in the depression. C'mon!

Well, I'm going to work on this a little more just to see what I can come up with.

Jim McCarthy