Learning to honor my heritage

Well, I didn't meet my goal to finish that book. I'll have to work harder. However I didn't want to just wait until I had read the book to update this blog. I've been meaning to do some variation on here for some time. The best I can do for today is talking about something I'm still trying to learn how to do: honor my heritage. 

Some time ago, I was visiting a museum close to where I currently reside. There I found something that talked about how a person honored their heritage by participating in the Scottish Dance. That has helped them to feel closer to their ancestors. That reminded me of a video I saw at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, about a boy who learned they were of Scottish descent and decided he wanted to learn to play the bagpipes. It took him a while, but he refused to quit, and his actions led to his sisters learning to do Scottish dances as well. 

Sadly I've known for a while that I was of Scottish descent, but I've never really done anything to honor that heritage. I didn't learn to play the bagpipes, I haven't learned any dances. I'm even willing to try haggis, but I still haven't. If only heritage honoring is a class you can take at school, or a college elective. 

Right now the only way I've been able to do anything to honor my heritage was to start doing family history and genealogy. Yet there are times when I fear that's all I'll ever be able to do, and I want to be able to do more to honor my heritage. Sadly every time I ask nobody seems to have any suggestions other than just adding sources to RootsMagic, FamilySearch, and Ancestry. 

So as a result I've been trying to figure out on my own how I could honor my heritage. I love good stories so I've been trying to read up on the books and tales told in the countries my ancestors came from. Sadly I haven't done a lot of Scottish stories, but I have been looking at lots of stories from England. That country has a rich heritage of storytelling. Many of the classic stories come from England, but I already covered how in a previous blog post. I have also been buying DVDs that have stories that are somehow connected to England and Scotland. I just hope I'm going about it the right way. 

Another way I'm trying to honor my heritage is with the world building I'm doing for my books. I've been looking at the legends and stories of the places where my ancestors lived to get ideas as to how to build up the world of Dymos. I've gotten a lot of magical and prehistoric creatures for those places, but I'm also trying to build the culture similarly. I haven't been able to find any good books that could help with that, but I'm going to keep looking. Hopefully as time goes on I'll be able to find more ways I can honor my heritage. Maybe I should practice making Shepherd's Pie more. 

Remembering my Grandma

As some of you have probably heard on Facebook my Grandma passed away this week. To remember her I'm doing a special blog post for her.

Pauline Ira Higginbotham was born on the eighteenth of September in the year of 1923 in Edom, Van Zandt County, Texas. She was the first child of Captain McKinley Higginbotham and Martha Lou Norris. She had three brothers and two sisters who she loved very much.

            She went to 1^st grade through 9^th grade in Beckville, Texas. She went to high school in Carthage where she was a student with Jim Reeves. Her mother died September 5, 1933 and her father passed away November 14, 1939. She graduated from high school after her father passed away and worked in Walgreens Drug Store in Marshall, Texas. She worked at another store before leaving to work in a shipyard in Orange, Texas. She worked there throughout World War II in that shipyard.

            After the war she went to San Antonio, Texas, where she worked at Joskes Department Store and at the Elks Club as a secretary. She visited the Circle B night club/dance club where she met the man who would become her future husband: Jack C Glenn.

            On February 23, 1951 she was married to Jack C Glenn in Watkins Glen, Schuyler, New York. Together they had Linda Palmer Glenn, Gerald Wayne Glenn, and Kenneth Lee Glenn. She had a fear of tall trees falling down on the houses where they lived, and so were careful about where they stayed.

            When her husband got discharged from the air force they moved back to San Diego, California, where they established their home. They lived in San Diego and the surrounding area for 30 years before they both retired and moved back to Texas.

            Like her husband, Pauline had a deep interest in genealogy and family history. The two of them had difficulty tracking down the ancestors of her mother and grandmothers. I tried to help while serving as a missionary in the Family and Church History Headquarters mission without success. Eventually they found a death certificate for her father’s mother listing the name of her and her father. Their joy was great that day.

            I remember during one visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Henderson, Texas that I saw a little toy Triceratops on one of their bookshelves. I hadn’t seen any like that since I was a kid. They reminded me that I gave that toy to them when I was young. I was glad that they still had it with them.

            Pauline had auburn hair for most of her life, and her third grandson through Kenneth’s line, who would be me, was very surprised when they came to visit one year and it had gone white. She stood at about her husband’s shoulder in height. In her old age Pauline had several trips to the hospital during which her children and grandchildren came and visited her. She was grateful for the company.

           I learned she was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an adult. She and her husband Jack were raising their children when she felt they needed to raise them in a church environment. However she wanted to join a church she felt was truly interested in their welfare. Jack was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but had fallen into inactivity. A bishop from the church kept visiting them regularly, and Pauline started going to church. She was always accompanied by her children. Eventually she joined and got her husband to attend as well. 

            She passed away on the sixth of October, 2014 in Celina, Texas. May she rest in peace.

Review of Beautiful Scars

I know I said I was going to do a certain blog post. However I finally finished something I've been meaning to do so I'm going to do a review on that now. This review is for the book Beautiful Scars.

This book gives the life story of Tate Publishing author Patti Chiappa. She speaks of her childhood and the fun times she had with her family growing up. However as life would have it it didn't last. There came a time where she went through hard times by other people. From what I've read to call them bullies would be the understatement of the millennium. However through the years Patti received help from family and friends to get through her hard times and she was rewarded with wonderful blessings as she turned to The Lord for help and guidance in her life.

I really sympathized with Patti as I read her story. I know what it's like to be bullied and let me tell you if you've never been bullied it's not something you want to experience. However the things she went through made my experiences seem like little more than an argument on the playground. The depression that came as a result of the inhumane treatments she was given is also something that came to me because of low self esteem. Patti's message in the book not only shows us where we can look for comfort, but the dangers of putting others down and making them feel like something less than human. If you need to find a book to teach others about the dangers of bullying look no further because this is definitely one to use. 

I also enjoyed how she included the story of her family in this book. I've gotten into doing family history and genealogy and one of the things I've been wanting to know is what my ancestors were like. I want to know more about what they liked, what they didn't like, how they interacted with each other, what some of their dreams and fears were, etc. Here Patti gave answers to several of those questions about her own family that I know descendants will love and thank her for. 

Results: Five out of Five Stars

The wait is over.

Thank you all for your patience with this post.

Okay, now it's time for me to update this blog. You're all probably wondering where I've been for the last two years. Well, here's the answer: I've been serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've been serving in the Family and Church History Headquarters mission of the church. It's there where we help people to do their family history. I served there helping to correct information in Family Tree.

What is Family Tree? Family Tree is this website where you can work on finding records for your ancestors. It allows you to do either a pedigree or fan chart view of your family tree. You can also post photos and stories of your ancestors on there. And here's the part many should like:

It's all free!

Anyway, so I've gotten to become interested in doing Family History and learning about my ancestors. I learned that many of my English ancestors were blacksmiths. I've also learned of some of the trials and challenges my ancestors had to go through. It's all so fascinating about what you can find in your family history. If you'd like to try out Family Tree go to www.familysearch.org and click on Family Tree at the top. You will have to register before you can use it. It's a service that is available to all people. I would highly recommend using it. I know my life has been better since getting into my family history.