Family History

This last week I have been busy doing web genealogy. My sister-in-law has been a genealogy hobbyist for many years and has extensively researched my husband's family. I did a little bit of researching on my family 5 years ago or so. She asked for family information from me, to fill in my son's chart. I sent her the family tree that I had constructed 5 years ago. This got me looking again. She pointed me to a Missouri death certificate site, where I was able to look up the deaths of many of my great-grandparents.

I have lots of information on my mother's side. I can trace them back to when they came to America from Germany and France. My father's side is more difficult. The trail is dead on my grandmother. There must have been some difficult circumstances there. Her mother died when she was very young and she married at 16. I cannot find her father and mother in the genealogy information, even though I know their names.

My father's father's family is more interesting. I don't know who my great-great-grandfather is. He is the one who came to America from Belgium. However, I most certainly know many of my relatives from the 1700's. How is this possible? My maiden name is Lignoul. There are only a couple dozen Lignouls in the United States and a couple dozen in Belgium. They are all related to me in some way. Someone had done some research on Lignouls in the 18th century in Belgium. It's all online and I can see 5 generations there. It's very interesting to think about

One thing I learned from this genealogy is that my family is long-lived. Many members lived into their 80s. That's a comforting thought. Only 1 of my 16 great-grandparents died of cancer. The rest of them died of heart disease or falling and breaking bones. This helps to reinforce the value of CR for me, since it will really prevent heart disease. And, I need to watch that bone density, since fractures killed 2 of my grandparents in their late eighties.

I was chatting with my youngest brother on some of the genealogy findings and he mentioned that he had been contacted by a Lignoul in Belgium via Facebook, just this week! I contacted the Belgian Lignoul right away and exchaged some info. The most interesting thing I found out was the origin of the name. I had found something earlier to indicate that it was a French version of Lingle - which mean the thread that sews shoes. The Belgian Lignoul informed me that it was actually Lognol, and had been misspelled by city clerks since the 1700s. Lognol is the name for people who lived in Logne. Logne was a small village in Belgium that was attached to a mildly famous castle, built in 883 and destroyed in 1521. The castle is a tourist attraction now, so it would be possible to visit it.

All my Belgian relatives live 50 km or less from Logne. That just blows my mind. It's so different from my family. Roots that deep seem amazing. The idea of living within 30 miles of the place where all your ancestors lived for 1000 years is a powerful idea. That would be your place in the world. But, the rest of the world would not be home to you at all. My attitude is just the opposite. My family has scattered across America, though there are many in Missouri, Texas and Illnois. I feel at home in several places and have a connection to them - including places that I love to vacation like Boulder, Colorado or southern Utah. I guess my ancestors were the ones with wanderlust and adventuresome genes came to America, not the conservative ones. Those are the genes I have. I'm just glad they were long-lived, relatively healthy adventurers.