This truly is an amazing World, if we choose to see it that way. I like to approach Life with my eyes wide open. I don't want to miss any of its wonders. Eyes wide open. Mind wide open. Don't miss a thing (hopefully).
I was born and raised in Chicago. (I'm getting to my "small world" point in a minute.) In 1975, at the age of 26, I moved to Sacramento California. When I was about 30 years old, I started college, primarily for classes to further my career, but it transformed into a love of learning. I took classes for the better part of 30+ years. Although I'm on hiatus now, I still grab a webinar, online class or in person class whenever I can.
In the early 1980s, my Humanities professor, Dr David Warren at Sacramento City College, assigned a family tree for the class. That was the start of my family tree and I've been working on it, on and off, ever since. I've had more time to work on it since I retired April 2006.
When I started my family tree, my family was small, or so I thought. I assumed that my family came to Chicago from the Old World. Most did. Then I learned about my paternal great grandparents - the parents of my dad's mother, Gertrude Sophia Minor. Henry B Minor was born in Uniontown PA and his wife, Sophia Booi, was born in Chicago but her mother and father came from Holland and England (respectively).
Huh. Pennsylvania. Who knew? No one in the family had ever mentioned it. My family, and my world, was suddenly larger that I knew previously. Then, shortly after moving to Winchester VA in December of 2015, I learned that my great-grandfather, Henry B Minor was in the PA Cavalry, and he is on the PA State Memorial at Gettysburg. Wow. Henry was born 3 hours from where I am now and he fought at Gettysburg, 3 hours from where I am now.
Wait. My ever-enlarging family and world is, in some way, getting smaller (if that makes sense). In just the past year or so, I've learned that my Minor ancestors originated in Connecticut when Thomas Minor came from England in the 1620s (conflicting years on that). There were a lot of Minor children, and some moved down the east coast and others across the country in the following years.
I recently learned that my 5th great-grandparents, Stephen and Athalia Minor lived in Winchester in the mid-1700s, at the time Winchester was being founded! (It was originally called Frederick City I think.) So, here is my SMALL WORLD. Here I am in Winchester VA. Additionally, Henry B Minor was apparently in Winchester and Opequon (about 15 minutes from me) during his time in the cavalry during the Civil War. I'm gobsmacked! Yes, I am a transplant but I have ROOTS here in the Shenandoah Valley!
One important thing to note. As a former tax auditor, I like documentation, and I feel the need to analyze and verify. Although I have a lot of information to show that I have the correct ancestral line back to Thomas Minor, I feel that I can use some additional documentation to be 100% sure. I have over 60 DNA matches to folks who also have a MINOR in their family tree. DNA doesn't lie but family trees online often contain errors. I need to be honest and say that I could be wrong, but I'm working on verifying. If I'm wrong, then that would mean that Ulysses S Grant is not my 6th cousin 3x removed. Oh well. The other folks in my family, in my Life, are more important anyway.
