52 Ancestors - Week 52 - Resolution

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 52 – Resolution

By Cynthia Keefer Patton 

Here we are at the end of this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. I feel good about my participation. I ended up posting 27 blogposts. I learned a lot. I cried a lot. I had to think twice about what I posted taking into consideration of living relatives.

I definitely expanded my research. I reached a larger audience of genealogy clients and friends. I am happy I have left albeit a small footprint in the forever web of stories. I hope they still exist in some form 50 years from now, but who knows. Where were we 50 years ago in terms of the types of media we used to share our stories?

My resolution for the year 2025 is to continue this journey, but with a little moderation. I will pick my favorite prompt each month and write 12 blogposts.

My second resolution is to shift away from client work and focus on my own family story--making me the client.

My third resolution is to continue seeking ways to preserve and share our family stories with repositories and historical societies in the areas that our family came from.

My wish for everyone is a Happy and Prosperous New Year and much success in tracing your family roots and telling their remarkable stories.

 

52 Ancestors - Week 50 - Chosen Family

52 Ancestors – WEEK 50 – Chosen Family

By Cynthia Keefer Patton 

I am the lucky, lucky mother of an adopted son. Our chosen family. When I tried for 10 years to conceive, but suffered two ectopic pregnancies, tubal repair surgery, and attempts at in-vitro, my late husband and I arrived at the conclusion that we would add to our family through adoption.

Of course we had worries. What if the child didn't love us? What if we didn't love them? What if our family didn't accept this child? Would my husband feel differently than about his two biological children?

I was young and headstrong and nothing could deter me through the process. There was a lot of paperwork, costs for healthcare for the bio mother. Legal documents, waiting, heartache, and more waiting. Part of our journey including allowing another pregnant girl to live in our home for three months as she awaited the childbirth. This kept the costs down overall for all the adoptive parents working with our private agency.

We were blessed to get to know a wonderful young woman and watch her life altering decision to give her little girl to a waiting couple. It allowed us to see all sides of the process. 

I prayed on New Year's Day of 1988 that my dream to become a mother would be fulfilled that year. In anticipation and with faith I furnished a nursery and bought tiny baby clothes. I kept this close to my heart, not sharing with many others. The girl living with us gave birth in early September and not five days later after we said goodbye to her at the bus station, we got the call that our child--a baby boy--had been born.

He would have had to have been conceived late December or perhaps even New Year's Eve. God is good and there are no mistakes. My chosen family grew to include his lovely wife, my sweet grandchild, my daughter-in-law's mother, and so many more people.

PS I couldn't have loved anyone more, his father adored him, and he has been a total blessing in my life.

52 Ancestors - Week 49- Handed Down

52 Ancestors – WEEK 49 – Handed Down

By Cynthia Keefer Patton 

On of my favorite things to "hand down" are recipes. With each recipe comes a flood of memories. Who made it, where we ate it, what the house smelled like while it was cooking. My late husband Shephard H. Patton, Sr. loved to cook. He cooked Southern and Cajun specialties because he was born and raised in Southern Mississippi.

While going through some boxes (yes 14 years since he passed away) I came across a notebook with some handwritten recipes. He wrote like this, mostly block letters. Not ever cursive. He loved this dish and we had it on a lot of Mondays. That is a New Orleans thing. Wash day. IFKYK.

I miss him a lot. He was a great man. Make these and I promise you won't regret it. PS You can use any type of sausage, even turkey sausage.