Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Family Tree

We went to my dad's house this past weekend and while I was there we started going through alot of my grandma and grandpa's old pictures/albums/papers. I've had this huge desire lately to work on my family history, so I was pumping my dad for as much info as possible. One of the jewels that we came across was my grandma's baby book that her mother had made for her. I can't read most of it because it's in german, but she did write a little in english too. My favorites are two poems that she wrote to my grandma, both of which happen to be in english. I was so excited to find these because, as some of you know, I love to write poetry as well (though I haven't really had the chance lately), so I felt this immediate connection with her. I just wanted to include the poems that she wrote because they are super sweet and really well-written.

"May Future with her kindest smiles
Wreathe laurels for thy brow;
May loving Nature guard and keep thee
Ever pure as thou art now."
My Dream of You
"I had a little Dream of you,
before you came down here,
A wonder dream so very true,
My own, my baby dear.
A little dream so tender sweet,
It brought a smile, a tear -
Love's rainbow flashing out to greet
And welcome you my dear.
'Twas but a dream, a fancy flight,
For since I hold you near,
The joy of you through day and night,
No dream could tell my dear."
Something else that I learned is that my grandmother (whose name was Margaret - yes there is a direct correlation) was called Gretel by her parents. My sister keeps razzing me about giving Margaret a nickname and insisting that it be Mags b/c that's what my grandpa called my grandma all of the time. As much as I love my grandma, I really don't love the name Mags; but Gretel is entirely different... I could get used to Gretel... We'll have to see; I really can't see (my) Margaret as anything but Margaret right now... and Margaret is a beautiful name.

4 comments:

Julie Gropp said...

Mom told me you guys were getting together for Dustin's Birthday! I love family history and looking at all that old stuff. When I was in Texas this summer for Kyle's mom's funeral I got lots of old pictures and scanned them (from all sides of the family). I am working on a digital family history scrapbook to put all those pictures and stories together. By the way, I always thought Meg was a cute name. Isn't that short for Margaret?

Audrey said...

Yeah, Meg has always been my top pick until I came across Gretel. But honestly, I have a hard time calling her anything but Margaret.

I'm also trying to put together a digital version of family history, but I'm just getting started. It's way fun, isn't it!?!

Oh, and sorry everyone for the lack of spacing in the poems; I could NOT get blogger to cooperate with me!

Kristi said...

Cool poems, that's awesome! I'm so glad you found those, that is so special. I like Mags as a
nick-name just for the record. ;)

Julie said...

Now you know where your poetry gene comes from! I'm with you on the family history fascination. I was called as a family history consultant for a few weeks this past spring (had you already moved when I had that calling?), and I LOVED getting into it. It is so contagious! It didn't last long (I got my current calling), but I loved learning the new website.
Miss you!