Tuesday, November 15, 2011

More Pictures From Recent Ancestor Vist

Here are more pictures from our recent ancestor exploration to visit the home of our great-great-great ancestor who was a captain of a ship.  Unfortunately at that time, whaling was a profitable occupation and he happened to be a whaler.  So we were a little bit conflicted visiting his home and learning about his history, but to actually step up onto the porch where he and his family once stood and feel the connection to these long ago ancestors was surreal. 

Of course, we had to explore what the world of whales was all about so we took a whale tour.  To see these incredible mammals up close was breath-taking.  Definitely it seemed as though they knew who we were and why we were there!

 I wonder if our ancestor had any idea how many of his future generations of relatives would one day step onto his porch--all in search of the knowledge of his life story.  It certainly puts one's life in perspective; although we leave this earth, our lives go on in so many ways.  Imagine the people that will look up your own life story a hundred years from now.  What story will you leave for them to discover? 
More incredible up close whale pictures:

Thursday, November 3, 2011

One of Our Favorite Ancestor Explorations

One of our most favorite ancestor explorations as a family is when we traveled, on the suggestion of my brother- and sister-in-law, to visit the still-preserved house of one of our long ago ancestors on my husband's side of the family.  Our ancestor was a captain of a whaling ship at the turn of the century.   While the kids weren't so excited that their ancestor hunted whales, they did love learning a bit about the people in their own history.  One amazing bit of information that was so interesting about our ancestor is that he couldn't bear to be without his family on the whaling ship so he took his wife and his kids with him at times and taught them all--including his wife.  This was an act really unheard of at that time in history--to take your family on the whaling ship with you. (Although I'm wondering if it brought them closer together or further apart being stuck on that ship together--there's certainly no closer quarters than that to bring up a family!  Hmmm...).  The best part about the expedition was having our extended family members (on that side of the family) all meet there together.  What a meaningful family connection for us all--not only to the past, but also to the present.