BlokThoughts: The one thing I learned about my ancestor's that hit home...

Now here is the tour of why I went to England in the first place. To find out where I come from...see where my roots stem, sort of thing. To trace my ancestors...see where they lived and worked...see their life before they joined the LDS church and packed up everything for the hope of a better life in a wild and rough America or to just be close to other saints who had also joined the LDS church...to be close to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

It was interesting I'll admit. There is love and tragedy and heartache in my ancestor's story. It was great to meet long lost cousins. They were from the part of the family that didn't join the church...that didn't sail to America...that stayed in England. They were hilarious...funny...witty... and just plain fun to get to know and I am so glad that I did it, that I went to England and that I saw and heard what I did about my ancestors and their great Legacy...and that I got to meet my British cousins.

But...

The best part of this whole trip...

The somewhat sick and twisted part of this trip...yet the best part still...

Is that I found out something VERY important...

Something I should have known before I was married...something crucial in my husbands and I relationship...(okay maybe not crucial...and maybe not really THAT important)

Okay here it is...the gruesome fact that my husband's Great-Great-Grandfather could have very well killed my Great-Great-Grandpa! That's right.

Gory, twisted, gruesome, and so so sad that I laughed OUT LOUD during the solemn presentation at our family reunion!

Does it surprise you that I find that funny...I hope not.

I think you know me well enough now to not be surprised that when they said my Great-Great-Grandfather was attacked and killed by a Ute Indian tribe while on his way to Salt Lake City to meet his 3 sons that he hadn't seen in YEARS and the only other members of his family to join and come out there to meet him (including his wife...who stayed behind in England), that I laughed...and everyone looked at me awkward, becaue it definitely wasn't a FUNNY moment...it was tragic and sad and the end to an incredible struggle on my Great-Great-Grandfather's part.

But you see...

My husband's Great-Great-Grandmother was full blooded Navaho, but was stolen by the Ute tribe when she was a young girl and raised Ute...so she was considered a part of the Ute tribe family. The indians that attacked and killed my Great-Great-Grandfather lived in the very vicinity that my husband's Great-Great-Grandfather's tribe lived and roamed.

Now we don't know for sure, I'm definitely going to start and do some research to see...but it all came together at that moment and I laughed, like and idiot, because it struck me as a funny. concept!

So here are some of the pics of some of the stuff I learned...I'll make it short and sweet...

Here we are at the Museum Science of Industry in Manchester listening to a wonderful tour guide who did a lot of research for us so that she would be prepared to tie in our ancestors story with how it related to the Industrial Revolution.

I learned that some of my ancestors where of the working class. Mechanics who kept the machines running and where very important to the warehouses (or so the tour guide said)...and some of my ancestors where sew-ers or seamstress people or something like that...they also worked with iron and rubber and stuff like that...

But the living conditions where horrendous...I kept thanking heaven above that I didn't have to live in that time...and be working class...because if my position today in life is any premonition to what and where I would have been back then...I would have HAD to live in those horrendous conditions...so sad, made my heart break. Although my ancestors where NOT poor...they had their own homes and were very lucky...it was just sad that ANYBODY had to live like some of those poor people had to live...

I was pretending to wait for the train...besides my Mom rushing me to get in the picture...all other human looking people are Plastic...

So some of my ancestors owned and ran a pub...This was the pub...still standing today. It was drizzling and miserable outside so i stayed my lazy butt on the bus and took a picture...so sorry for the distortion!
This is where some of my more affluent ancestors lived. This was their home and they owned TONS of land. I think this particular home had 4 levels and 28 bedrooms...I kept looking up to Heaven and wondered "What went wrong? Where in the line of my ancestors did someone screw up the money tree and marry for love?"

We got to visit some of their graves. I guess you can tell if they had money or not by their grave stones. These ancestors had money...just look at the graves behind...these went on and on and on...
This is a drawing done back in the 17 th century I believe...and what the church would've looked like where my ancestors were married...
This is part of the original medievel section of that same church...still standing...and the only part original to the design.
I just thought this was cool...inside the church...they still had this podium which was made in the medeviel age...
The original fireplace from the medievel part of the church... And the original stain glass window...you haven't toured Britian or Europe for that matter if you haven't visited a Catholic church and seen a stained glass window...it just isn't done! :)