Doing God’s Work: The Blesseds

The theme of this month’s 12 Ancestors in 12 Months writing challenge is “Check It Out!”, something uttered regularly by family historians with each new find, myself included. With each new “discovery”, I regale loved ones and strangers alike with what I learned, whether they care or not.  🙂

So what makes this discovery any different than the hundreds of others I have made already? Why should you “check it out”? Let’s find out…

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My genealogical research has uncovered dozens of ancestors who devoted themselves to God, so many that I began a series of posts titled Doing God’s Work: Our Families’ Faithful. This is the eleventh installment. 

In the previous post of this series, I presented brief biographies of three direct ancestors who were monks. Yes, you read right… monks.

Same Trunks, Different Branches

Thank goodness that I had a whole month to do my 12 Ancestors in 12 Months post because this one took a whole lot longer than I expected.

February’s writing prompt, Branching Out, got me thinking about the limbs and offshoots of our family trees. Although I, like most genealogists, often focus on direct ancestors, as evidenced by this blog, I occasionally scale branches of our indirect relatives, discovering distant cousins amongst the twigs.

12 Ancestors in 12 Months: Foundations

As I stated at the start of 2022, my New Year’s resolution is to blog more about our families’ history. With that intent in mind, I accepted genealogist Amy Johnson Crow’s “lighter” writing challenge, not 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks but the more achievable 12 Ancestors in 12 Months.

At first, January’s writing prompt, Foundations, had me stumped. Naturally, what first came to mind was construction. Did we have ancestors who erected buildings? Sadly, other than family farmers who raised barns; one uncle who poured concrete; another uncle, a great-uncle, and a grandfather who painted houses; and a father who installed plumbing and flipped houses as some of his many jobs/pastimes, I could not determine anyone in the past who had labored in construction.

Think, think, think… Suddenly, inspiration struck. Why not write about someone whose historical impact is still felt today? A “great” person who not only built an empire but also helped forge the foundation of today’s Europe… Charlemagne.

The Old Country: Lombardia, Italia

Although it is now Week 31 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge, I am skipping both this week’s writing prompt (Large) and next week’s prompt (Small). Instead, I will be blogging about last week’s challenge, The Old Country. (Yeah, time just got away from me… again. SMH!)

Doing God’s Work: The Monks

It is week 25 in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge. This week’s writing prompt is Unexpected. Unexpected? The one thing I have learned in more than two decades of genealogical research is to expect the unexpected. You never know what you are going to uncover! Take for example my recent “religious” findings…