Managed to get good sleep last night. Had set the alarm for 8 1/2 hours but was woken an hour early but even so it is so good to feel relatively refreshed. With the funeral last monday, and an extra busy week following sleep became a luxury I could not afford. This coming week will be at least as bad. November is always my most difficult month of the year. It seems that Scorpios are disproportionaltely represented in my family and friends. The birthdays alone make this a busy month, add in hens events and Lisa's death, and I have many reasons to be glad to see December this year.
This November is also momentous for my discovering my family origins in the fog of fragile memories and disinformation. To discover ancestors back to the 17th century and so many artifacts and stories is amazing enough, but to find that all my previous knowledge of origins, including my ethnicity is wrong is the sort of thing that can be life changing.
When I started that search just a few weeks ago I was not certain I would even find more than the most basic information beyond 3 or 4 generations, but the sheer volume of information available is proving to be overwhelming. So far I have discovered 5 books either entirely about my family, or significantly about my family. There are items in museums including clothing worn by my great grandmother, my great grandfathers watch, watercolors and photographs of ships they sailed on, a family Bible, and so much more.
I have found this due to the work of Val Ready who is very much alive, and Eilert Sundt, a historian in Norway in the mid 19th century. Fortunately 3 books written by Sundt about our family origins are still in print 150 years after they were first published and a friend of mine in Bergen has translated parts of them for me. I have been promised a copy of another history book (by Rolf Nordli) a copy of which is kept in a museum, but a cousin of mine was able to get access to the book in order to translate significant parts into English. I look forward to reading it.
November 2007 is a month that will not be forgotten easily.
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