I’m writing from just outside the place of my birth, Meadville, Pennsylvania, following our annual “cousin reunion” in Canton, Ohio, earlier today. This is the third straight year the Anderson cousins and their spouses have gathered for an afternoon of wonderful food, conversation, and rehashing of so many memories from our younger days.
Today’s event had all of that, plus an extra touch of our family heritage, thanks to my wife’s efforts in locating details about great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc., through her genealogy searching this past week and Ancestry.com.
In fact, just in the last few days, I’ve learned about ancestors I’d never heard of before, and neither had most of the others in attendance today. It kind of makes me realize how I fit into the big picture of my family tree and how it continues with my own kids and grandkids. I find that pretty cool!
The plan for tomorrow is to meet up with another cousin and his wife in the little town of
Cambridge Springs, just a bit north of here, and spend a few hours going back to places where our great-grandparents, grandparents, and various aunts and uncles lived. We will roam the cemeteries where so many of them are buried, and we’ll pay tribute to their having lived and helped make things possible for us to exist as we do.
It has been many years since I’ve been back here, and I have a feeling that visiting these old places will help keep the memories of those wonderful relatives of mine alive and the past not so distant. There’s a story to write about all of this down the road….CortlandWriter
Down Many Roads... 
Enjoy, Mark! Family is all that matters. 🙂
Thanks, Jill. You are so right, and what a delightful weekend it was! 🙂