ISSN #1055-1891

Volume 13, #2                                                             June 2000

Dear Cousins...

we have several new subscribers who have submitted their research data so there are many new names and new families to investigate. I know that beginning this month you will all be going on vacation...or having houses full of out-of-town visitors...so relax and take a rest from your "root" digging.

I'm putting together my sons' photo albums. What a lot of memories that invokes! Babies on swings...first day of kindergarten...how much Michael looks like my brother Larry...and Christopher looks like my brother Harold. David is the image of his father at all ages...and Robert looks like Grandma Kieffer. Then there's football and baseball photos...swimming photos...prom and graduation photos...and wedding photos, I have 12 big filing boxes full...and my parents' albums…Wayne's parents' albums...photos of people we have never met but recognize. And out of that only one grandchild, lovely Christy, aged 10. I envy those of you who have 6 - 8 - 10 grandchildren. I always dreamed of having a houseful of them at Christmas and Thanksgiving. But Christy is in New York...Robert is in Arizona...but the other three are here or just north of here. It's not like when most of us were young and aunts and uncles and grandparents were nearby, even in the same town. That's why I believe it's so important to discover our past and those who peopled it…back as far as we can go...for the benefit of those who follow us who have scattered far and wide...seemingly rootless. In this way we can give them their roots, their foundation, their knowledge of where they came from and what family means in its deepest sense. I hope you agree.

Have a great summer.