Moved Four Hours South and Found Family!

It's been a while since I last posted on my blog. My husband and I moved from the Tucker, Georgia area, just outside the perimeter of Atlanta (OTP). I have enjoyed living in South Georgia for the last two years. Every minute has been wonderful—the cranes, the blue herons, and sitting roadside to watch the horses and cows. It is so quiet here! Even the geese are peaceful when they cross the road and make it to the other side alive, unlike where we used to live. Some drivers there would go out of their way to hit geese, especially in front of Sam's Wholesale Club on Mountain Industrial Road in Tucker, Georgia. Don't they know there is a law concerning the Migratory Bird Program, conservation, and the protection of geese and all waterfowl? If the geese that were hit had a clutch of eggs, what would happen to their baby birds? Also, how can we help as human beings? Besides getting out of our cars and banging on the window of the person who hit the bird and telling them it’s against the law? I know in Atlanta, you’d get a weapon thrust into your face, and it would be up to the discretion of the person if he wanted you dead as well. I’m not up for that type of excitement. Besides, if you called the non-emergency phone number for the police, you’d hear an audible scoff, and they’d ask if the bird was out of the street, and if so, they would send the Department of Transportation to dispose of it. They don’t care either. Enough of my tangent, I am glad we moved so I don’t have to see it, report it, and nothing gets done.

Since moving here, I have found this town and the people in it are very respectable and pleasant to be around. Geese fly early over our house in the morning, to their respective pond, then fly in the evening time to the other pond, in front of our house but behind the house that obstructs our view from that pond. However, they love to cross the road, I believe it's their part to make us slow down to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us. 

There is no rushing a family of geese, everyone stops, and waits patiently. This family of Canadian geese has four chicks, and the parents are teaching them to walk across the street in a timely manner. 

 

Within six months of moving to Tifton, GA I applied for three jobs, and the first one I applied for called me for a in person interview. At the end of the week, I was gainfully employed. Still unsure of my surroundings or footing, so to speak. After being here almost two years, I love being around the teachers, professors, staff, and the students! I work as an assistant librarian at a local college. I've learned so much already, and I'm always obliged to help them in whatever capacity I possibly can help in.  

One day, at the end of the Winter semester, I received an email. Right before the email arrived, I was wondering what my husband and I would do for a vacation in the summer of 2025. Besides going to the beach, because that was the first on my "want to do" list. 

As I was reading this email, I checked if this family was part of my line, because some of the names sounded familiar. The woman who reached out to the Museum was my 5th cousin, two times removed. So instead of worrying about what "I" wanted to do, I was able to help with an act of service, by retracing her maternal and paternal grandparents' immigration from Germany and Prussia/France, to Wisconsin, then finally to Americus, Georgia. A few months later as I was winding down on the research, she asked if I would include an additional family that worked for her paternal grandfather, and to find their lineage as well. That finished my time, for the last two months of this project. 

It was a dizzying experience. Roots Magic lost data several times, then when using a USB drive, it ended up to be three USB drives to keep each of the families separate. However when I added the family to the 7 Terabyte USB external drive, that when things really went downhill. But, I am slowly building things back up to what they should have been. 

However, her grandfather from the parental side, and out of the Mr. Albert W. Schmidt family, this was one of my favorite finds! Arnold Schmidt wanted to serve his Country, but just as he was drafted, World War I ended, and he never saw the front lines. 

For each family member in this fan, I know where they immigrated from and who remarried after their husband or wife passed away.