We have some really good friends. I am one of those people who when I find a good friend, I hold on to them. What I have learned recently was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen, and it involves my husband and his friend.
So I LOVE getting people excited about genealogy, although it may be sort of a selfish thing. I MIGHT automatically assume people will think less of me if they know that I’m interested in such a geriatric hobby, so I try to make it sound REALLY cool and hip. However, when I get people excited I will often hear, “Well, let me know if you have time to work on my tree. That would be cool.” And honestly, I kind of like it. I love looking into other people’s histories, almost as much as my own, only because they are so different. My friends, C-Dogg B-Dizzle and husband Ragin’ Nortron (names have been changed to protect the innocent), are two friends whose trees I am working on. I must say, it is a nice diversion from my own.
I was working on Nortron’s tree the other day and made a lovely discovery. When I look through census records I love to find out the actual home addresses of the people in the tree and put those addresses in my notes section. Then if you want to pull up the address on google maps, it’s kind of awesome.
“Oh look! This is where my ggg grandmother lived, and now it looks like a crack den!” This happens a LOT.
So I was looking at Nortron’s gg grandfather’s (Arthur Jones) addresses in the actual copies of the census pages and noticed something interesting on the page. I recognized the name under him. Delmar Morts. Hmmm…. I know there were Morts’s in my tree because of Andrew but I wasn’t sure if they were from Wabash, Indiana like this one. So I switch trees, and what do you know. Delmar and Arthur were neighbors! Delmar was my husbands gg uncle! Now…this wouldn’t be strange if any of us were from Wabash. None of us were. In fact, I don’t know that any of us have BEEN to Wabash. Maybe, Ragin’ Nortron. I can’t say.
My husband and Ragin’ have been friends for years, since we were all in high school together (WAY too long ago). Ragin’ wooed and married a friend of mine and an old roommate. They are now close neighbors to us and they are delightful friends. I wonder if Delmar and Arthur were good friends. I’m just going to assume they were… and sigh a lot, thinking about how precious it all is.
That is awesome. Really awesome! Of course, it would almost be as cool if they were like bitter enemies because one stole the other’s prize heifer or something… 🙂 I wish you could come here and work on my/our family tree. I have certain parts very well documented and other parts are practically non-existant. Finding any kind of Irish records is a lot of work, especially when living family members can’t remember anyone’s real names, just the nicknames! Luckily, they released the 1911 census recently and it’s free to look at, so we did find some cool things out about one or two Kellys.
You are so cool. Not geriatric. Very cool, or deadly as we’d say here. 🙂
Yeah, I’ve been really lucky that there’s so much that I can do without leaving Indianapolis, especially on Andrew’s side of the family. I know how it is with the nicknames with some families. On Andrew’s side, he only knew this one relative by the name Pop Pop. He thought he was his uncle, and he had no idea what his real name was. Turns out it was his great grandfather! I was like, “Why would you call your Uncle Pop Pop?” He had never even thought about it. Glad I have his parents to help me out. 🙂
Heh. Pop Pop. George Michael. Arrested Development. Stuff.
This is the greatest story! It pleases me greatly that our husbands have an historic friendship. As Maryann says though, a rivalry would be pretty cool too.