Learning Our Lineage

 Oh, our family has a LOT of history and a number of stories, from their emigration from other countries and travels to their homesteads within the United States.

Ramsey's class's most recent creative writing assignment was to learn about their lineage and where they came from.

I dug out a centennial book from 1986, plus a history on my Dad's side of the family.  

We found all kinds of crazy stories.   One of them, a great great great ancestor came to South Dakota from Wisconsin (originally from Wales) on a trip, to survey the land for homesteading.  On the way back home, he and his friend (who were traveling by boat on the Missouri River) got into some nasty weather and waters (in frigit temperatures). The boat capsized and they lost everything.  Our ancestor's friend drowned.   That said, the ancestor returned to Wisconsin and brought his family.  They homesteaded by Hecla, being some of the first settlers in the area.  

Ramsey talked to grandpas and grandmas and Auntie Sarah who all gave him good information!  Auntie Sarah even had some terrific pictures from Eric's side of the family.

The writing assignment apparently wasn't meant to be long, as he had a very small amount of writing space.  But, the information he learned about our family was pretty amazing!