Me too. I think I got the bug because I loved the "old" people in the family when I was a kid. I had time with all 4 of my great grandmothers. Lots of time with 2 of them.
My Scots great grandmother was widowed in 1921. She had 13 children all under the age of 20 at the time. 11 boys and 2 gals. Boys all decided that converting the 2nd outhouse to a still house was a good way to make money. Great-grandmother was a strict Nazarene, not sure how much she knew and overlooked but the family made it through the time after great grandfather's death and the depression okay. Ingenuity. Not a bad thing. I loved hearing all those old stories. As a young teen, I found I liked history because I could put the stories I knew of great grandparents, great aunts etc into the timeline. Was fascinating. Still is.
My Scots great grandmother was widowed in 1921. She had 13 children all under the age of 20 at the time. 11 boys and 2 gals. Boys all decided that converting the 2nd outhouse to a still house was a good way to make money.<<<
LOL, so dangerous we would be, if we lived near each other.
My fathers mother is Scots, his father a full blood Cherokee on the Oklahoma reservation, I have one tiny photo of the great grandfather and none of my grandfather, that granny gave to me.
Still smiling about the stories told about granny, seems the cops got word that she was making whiskey and they came to get her/it.
At the time she was a widow, no education and 2 kids.
They say the cops managed to park the car over the spot that she had the boys bury it and so the cops could not find it.
My dad made beer and there was always some working ....
Granny married again and had 5 more kids.
She was always a soft spoken Virginia lady and would not tell us anything about her past.
I asked her how a Scots lady from Virginia, married a full blood Cherokee, who worked on the railroad.
She told me that I did not need to know, as it happened a long time ago and was no ones business......
Granny was always telling us, “If it happened yesterday, forget it, for it is past and done with and should not be talked about..” and she did not talk about the past.
It is our Scots blood that binds us in our twin paths.