where I come from

I'm obsessed lately with figuring out anything and everything related to my ancestry and family tree. This is what I'm supposed to do when I'm retired, not when I'm 30 and in grad school, barely able to hold down the fort. And now I'm writing about it too, as if THIS is what I should be writing about! I spend hours and hours thinking up all the possible spellings, americanizations, lithuanizations, polishizations, russianizations, and plain old misspellings of ancestors' names, doing search after search. Calling cemeteries in the middle of the day. And I feel some kind of connection or authority when I find out one of my ancestors is buried in their cemetery. Weird me. 

It's like I'm trying to piece together a story about each of their lives, and each bit of information gives me a glimpse into their lives. I don't know how much they really have to do with me, but I have their names and some of their cultures, and some of their stories have been passed on to me.