FrancoAmerican Gravy: Family History & Stories from Upstate New York, Quebec and Acadia

Stories of family and ancestors who lived and worked in Cohoes (textile and garment workers, butchers and barbers), Waterford (canalers), Whitehall (farmers and canalers), Port Henry (iron miners and Civil War soldiers), Champlain (canalers and farmers) and other towns along the Champlain Canal in New York State with some diversions to the places they emigrated from....Quebec (landless farmers, shoemakers, sailors, soldiers), Acadia (more farmers), and even Cornwall, England (tin miners).

Monday, July 1, 2013

When the past gives way to the present

Here's a topic for amateur genealogists and family history seekers: how children can steal the show right from under us and our well made plans. Take Memorial Day weekend 2013 when some of the Wills family came together to visit the grave of our great grandfather's brother in Port Henry, Essex County, New York. Two separate generations came together. For one little member of the family, the grave was the site of her great-great-great grandfather's brother, William Henry Wills, born in 1840 in Cornwall and died in 1888 in Port Henry. William Wills served in the New York State 16th Infantry Regiment, Company F during American Civil War.

When we finally arrived at our destination in the midst of a downpour, I risked soaking my camera equipment to take photos of the little star of the day....and what a joy she was. A midst the rain and water everywhere, the older generation forgot the gravestone and forgot the past. We stood among the droplets enjoying, for a few moments anyway, the present and the future. Here is what we saw: