Of all the sweeps I’ve entered so far, this one more than any should be mine. The Grand Prize is for a trip to your ancestral country for pleasure and genealogical research. This is too much. I am writing a memoir called Family Archives and just this weekend, this very weekend, I resumed online research on my father’s side. Oh the things I learned. The Wright Brothers might be distant cousins, in that they supposedly descend from the same immigrant ancestor that I do. And another possible distant cousin is none other than Lucille Ball. Is that not too much?
Of course in the end we’re all related but this narrow, blood lineage research just tickles the pickles out of me. I also learned that some fellow, another way distant cousin, is researching our immigrant ancestor, the big mystery in the family tree. His name was John Benham and he came from England in 1630 but no one knows for sure from where. They say Dorchester but how do we know? This fellow wants to solve the mystery once and for all and is asking people on the other side of the pond to submit to DNA testing. Is that not rich? He’s find a slew of John Benhams, going back to Scotland in the 1300s. The plot thickens. The phlebomotrist waits. My paper cuts coagulate.
Unfortunately, there’s a rub. The website Ancestry.com is asking folks to upload photographs to enter. Each uploaded photograph constitutes one entry. The only problem is I do not know how to scan and upload photographs. That I mastered Blogger is a miracle of sorts. I’m going to ask a friend if she can help. I so want to enter this one. If I won, I would try to hit both Ireland and England. Why not.
To enter, click HERE. This one ends September 30.
P.S. Yesterday I left my keys on the top of Isaac’s father’s car after Isaac’s soccer game. We drove back to D.C., an hour’s drive, on a highway, and the keys stayed on top of the car for the entire ride. What a stroke of luck. On this ring of keys is the only key to my car.