[PRCo] Re: White House

[Schneider Fred]

Using your last statement ... "but its fun to research as long as not  
taken seriously" ... that is why once I found out where we came from  
in Germany and Ireland and I had accumulated a file drawer of  
documents and photographs, I put them away and never looked at them  
again.   I've even talked to the minister in the small northern  
Bavarian church that my great grandfather went to as a child in the  
1850s.   That and a five bucks will buy me coffee at Starbucks.   I  
won't bother with either.

Irish presbyterians?   Probably Calvinists from the Church of Scotland.

But like going out with Mike or John or Ed looking at trolley rights- 
of-way, it can be fun if you don't take yourself too seriously.    
It's a great way to have a day out with friends.

The one good thing research into your family's history does for you  
is teach you to appreciate what others go through.  Seeing that my  
own great grandfather struggled as a tailor in an all German section  
of Pittsburgh because he spoke limited English and was therefore  
comfortable among his own kind, or that all of my German ancestors in  
the United States worshipped God in churches where the sermon and  
liturgy were conducted in the German language, because they were  
comfortable with it, gives me a much greater appreciation for the  
chap from Mexico or Puerto Rico who cannot find someone to teach him  
English because there are far more applicants than there are E. S. L.  
teachers.   (John and I both have a friend whose wife teaches English  
as a second language; I have a second friend who does it ... both  
tell the same story that the applicants exceed the teachers by two or  
three to one.)

On Nov 20, 2008, at 2:23 PM, John Swindler wrote:

>
>
> Most people probably don't know where they come from, such as my  
> father's family.  My uncle, 'the doctor' (and therefore an expert),  
> said that we were descendents of Hessein soldiers.  I then inquired  
> about the 1729 estate settlement in Freehold NJ, 1760s land deeds  
> in Loudon Co., Va., and the pension applications for Revolutionary  
> war era vets who served in Captain Swindler's Ranger Co. from Ft.  
> Gerrard in Washington County.
>
> It's just like electric railway history.  A lot of it is made up as  
> a short cut.
>
> And besides, Fred, where do you think the Irish Presbyterians came  
> from?
>
> In the end, it doesn't much matter where people come from, there is  
> so much intermingling anyway, but its fun to research as long as  
> not taken seriously.
>
> Cheers
> John
>
>>