Family Roots

Today we attended a family reunion that has been an annual event for a long as I've been alive, and I learned today that it was actually started back in the 1930's or 1940's!  This would be my mom's mom's parents - my great grandparents.

For the past couple of years, my brother has been working on a family tree website, and today was the first time I was on it.  It's been a great website to get a good grasp of how to place where each relative belongs and see how big our family really is.   I'm thinking that it wasn't until Rodney came into my life that I really made an effort to not just know who my relatives are but to know which family they belonged to (to which of my grandma's siblings).

Today's reunion seemed fairly large - either that or the building we had it at was a bit too small ;o).  Anyway, I decided to go on the website and count how many blood relatives there are for just two generations.  Of course there were the original two (great grandpa & grandma).  They had 10 children (my grandma was #8).  Of their children who lived to get married and have their own children that number totals 46.  That means my mom has/had 42 1st cousins and that's just one side of the family!  Compare that to my girls who have NO 1st cousins and to me who has only seven 1st cousins on one side.  Now take into account that the majority of these 46 people got married and had children of their own (this would be my generation) and on and on.

Ok, I decided to do it.  I went on the website and counted EVERY person who is under the family of Jacob J.C. Miller whether it is by blood or by marrying into the family or just a little kid.  Are you ready for this?  The total number is 712 people!  Granted not everyone is still living (there is only one son of my great parents that is still living), but that is still a lot of family heritage from my great grandparents.  I'm fairly sure that this is not a common occurrence for most people especially if you don't have an amish/mennonite background, and to have your ancestry mapped out for the past 100+ years is quite a feat too.

With this all said, I guess I'm discovering that the older I get, the more I realize how special my family and relatives really are.  And even though I may not see some of them except once a year or maybe even longer, they are still a part of me and who I am.