We are getting closer and closer to the end of the year. I was starting to get worried at the start of the month that I was going to be running out of stories from members of my family. Ancestry has been a real help, but a lot of the stories that are on there are from other family members, and sometime they are only like a sentence to two long. I was worried that I wasn't going to have enough. Well, I ended up I ended up finding out a whole lot on my dad's side and I am excited to share with you some of what I found.
First, let's talk about Meet the Robinsons.
This wonderful tale about family follows a boy named Lewis. Lewis is a young man who loves science and inventions. He loves to create new things that no one have ever come up with before. Lewis is also an orphan who inventions usually ward off potential families. After many interviews, he is inspired by trying to see if he can find out who is real mother is. In his search to create a memory machine, he finds meets another young man by the name of Wilbur. We find out right away that Wilbur is from the future and comes from a place with all sorts of amazing inventions! He ends up meeting all of Wilbur's family and falls in love with them. However, he can't stay there no matter now much he wants to. We might find that it's all for the best.
This is one of those Disney movies that I forget how much I love them. I always enjoy watching this film and all of the wonderful jokes that are told. I love the story in how, again, family is not always the people you are born into. However, this movies does pose a new way of thinking about family that many of the other movies I have watched have not done. That the family can love you enough to do what's best and leave. We never find out why Lewis's mom left him at the orphanage. We may never will. We do know that she did it out of love (because of the snuggle before she leaves). Doing what is best is not always the easiest thing and leaving is not always the wrong choice. Sometimes choosing to love family is choosing to let them go. Not easy but sometimes what is needed. However, when you find the right people to call family, it all can make a lot of sense.
I feel like in the last few month's of this journey I have meet a lot of people on my tree that have been influential in some way when it has come to American History.... I never thought it would be World History.
Meet my 8 times Great Uncle, Samuel Pepys.
Now, I have never heard of him until about four days ago. I was just going along and trying to find some more people in my tree and see if there were more stories that popped up. There he was... just sitting there waiting to be discovered. Samuel Pepys is best known for diary that he kept from January 1 1660- May 1669. He wrote about many historical events that happened in England in the 17th century such as the execution of Charles I, the The Great Plague, The Great Fire of London, The Anglo-Dutch War, and even some interactions he had with Sir Isaac Newton. I got this picture of the Wikipedia page, because there is a whole page about the man! He was a royalist (not to Charles the I he did not like him) However, he fully supported King James II and was actually one of the barons that held the Canopy at King James's Coronation.
His diary from that time is one of the most revealing personal accounts during this time. There have been several books written about his writing and what his life is like. His diary is actually held at Magdalene College at Cambridge.
The funny about all of this is the fact that Samuel Pepys also has a blog. Yup, a blog. The site is run by a gentleman by the name of Phil Gyford. All of the entries are available for free on his site because they are made available by Project Gutenberg. So, you an read all of what Samuel Pepys had to say. I thought I was the only one in this family with a blog... come to find out I'm not.
I know that we hear stories all of the time about how people find all of these crazy stories about our ancestors. The stuff I am learning is stuff I would have never dreamed about. I would have never guessed that anyone in my family would have had such an influence on the world. I would have never believed that there would be so much to learn. I am glad that I finally did. I know that there is more to learn that just talking about one person every month for a year, and I don't plan on stopping after this year is over. However, I am so glad about what I have found so far and I can't wait to see how much more there is to learn.
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