ahhhhhhhhhhh

Sep 13

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I’m planning a pilgrimage later this week to visit my second through sixth great grandparents’ various graves. I particularly want to visit the grave of my second great uncle S. Wesley Heffner, the WWI veteran I posted about earlier. So of course I went to my ancestor shrine last night and announced my intention to visit two cemeteries and….all of a sudden later that night I got pushed to go to my tree at ancestry.com and start clicking on all the little green leaves (which are hints to new info and more ancestors. Beware those leaves. It’s easy to get sucked into hours and hours of research). I managed to trace, for two lines within my maternal line, four more generations. The dead were all around me, swarming me, wanting to be heard – wanting to NOT be forgotten. They were pointing out things and bringing information up for me and hours later my husband finally reminded me of the time and urged me to go to bed (I have an early class today — in fact, I’m sitting in the cafeteria at school now). I finally managed it, not an easy thing with so many ancestors about, and dreamed of them, dreamed of their graves, of finding them, of visiting them all and seeing all the connections between the various families.

I woke up realizing I have not two but at least four graveyards to visit and that i’m related to most of the families in those graveyards. I’ll post more about this later but I’m overwhelmed and not sure how I’m going to do this. I finally promised them that I’d visit as many graves as I could this visit and those I missed, I’d be sure to visit on my next trip down.

They want to be remembered, to be part of my life here and now, today. I pray they help me to do that well.

 

About ganglerisgrove

Galina Krasskova has been a Heathen priest since 1995. She holds a Masters in Religious Studies (2009), a Masters in Medieval Studies (2019), has done extensive graduate work in Classics including teaching Latin, Roman History, and Greek and Roman Literature for the better part of a decade, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Theology. She is the managing editor of Walking the Worlds journal and has written over thirty books on Heathenry and Polytheism including "A Modern Guide to Heathenry" and "He is Frenzy: Collected Writings about Odin." In addition to her religious work, she is an accomplished artist who has shown all over the world and she currently runs a prayer card project available at wyrdcuriosities.etsy.com.

Posted on September 13, 2016, in Ancestor Work, Ancestors, Uncategorized and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.

  1. Rede Seeker | September 13, 2016 at 4:26 PM

    Best Wishes for your Pilgrimage. May Hermes ‘ride shotgun’ with you.

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  2. J. Martinios Agathokles | September 13, 2016 at 4:44 PM

    Seems like Ancestry.com might be a very useful site… But unfortuantely have no Belgian counterpart. Hmmm. Guess I’ll have to do with the national archives, as incompletely digitised as they are.

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  3. Petros | September 13, 2016 at 10:30 PM

    Maybe get another family member or an associate you trust to help with the grave visits?

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    • ganglerisgrove | September 13, 2016 at 10:33 PM

      i am traveling with a friend who has helped me when I visited battlefields before. it’s just a bit overwhelming to know that you’re related to nearly everyone in the cemetery lol

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      • neptunesdolphins | September 13, 2016 at 10:44 PM

        Yes. It is. I used to visit my family graves in Maine in a tiny cemetery outside of Bingham. It was overwhelming. My mother had problems especially with her sister’s grave and her uncle’s. The former died young, the latter in WWI.

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  4. Autumn Pulstar | September 14, 2016 at 3:32 PM

    Suddenly I am taken back to the old cemetery in New York where my parents, paternal grandparents, great grandfather and many other relatives are buried – and wish I were there, now, visiting, honoring them. That little church cemetery is a very special place…overwhelming when so many are related to you, but also peaceful. Magical. Because they ARE all related.

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  5. thetinfoilhatsociety | September 17, 2016 at 4:45 PM

    I’m sort of envious that you can actually use ancestry.com. I was snatched away from my father when I was 4 and my mom had me adopted by her new husband. I have a rich history, though short, of stories about my Irish Immigrant grandparents but I don’t have birthdates for any of them even my father, my birth certificate is sealed, and it’s frustrating. I would love to actually find family on my dad’s side, even if I had to go to Ireland to find them.

    My mother’s side I could certainly do though, if I ever get extra cash for that.

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