Where it all started....

I will never forget what began this winding path of family tree research. I was in the seventh grade and our social studies teacher, Mr. Fowler, gave us an assignment.... research your genealogy. Only I'm pretty sure he didn't use the word genealogy. 

Off I went to talk with my family. Parents. Grandparents.

"Granny, where are we from?" I asked, on the edge of my seat. Did we descend from royalty? Which European country might we have some claim to the throne in? Or maybe pirates? I guess I should call them privateers, I mean, my family wouldn't be involved in anything illegal of course! I was excited.  

"We're from here," she replied. 

"Wait. What? No. Where did our people come from? Before they were here." Surely, I descended form a Cherokee princess. 

"We're from here," she insisted again. And she began to tell me about the vague, fading memories of her great grandfather and his long white beard. 

Off I went, a couple weeks later, with my project. I'd done what I could. It wasn't much, but it was certainly more than I'd known before I started! But I was still bothered by that answer.... "We're from here." I mean, no one is really from here. Western North Carolina, beautiful as it is, isn't the cradle of humanity. 

So there we are... 20+ seventh graders, all awkwardly presenting their projects. What thirteen year old wants to publicly speak?

Then, a classmate held up her drawn tree. 

It was like the Holy Grail of Genealogy. Unending names, stories of who, what, when, where. *Insert choral music here*.

It was beautiful. 

I'm quite certain over the years, my own mind has embellished this story. 

In that moment a passion was born. I knew I had to know. I needed to know more about my own ancestors. I knew we weren't just "from here". 

 There were lots more stories to follow. From my Granny, my Memaw, aunts, uncles and cousins. Countless trips to the library, where I would dig through census records, county histories, wills, and inventories. Anything I could find. 

The desire to know more, find more, discover more continues. 

The best part over the years, was that I discovered WHY I'd received the answer, "We're from here." My ancestors had shown up around the time of the American Revolution in Western NC.... and for over 200 years, many of us stayed in the same spot!