It’s been a busy past few weeks nurturing the family tree. Sometimes in our complex world that’s an activity that can get neglected. Thanks to our son Steve and his wife Sara we have been for able to do some nurturing at their lake home on Paul Lake near Perham, MN.

It’s become a tradition that the first week in August we all gather at Steve and Sara’s lake home for some family time.  That includes hours of tubing, water skiing, frog hunting, basketball ‘pig’ contests, bean bag tournaments and, after the sun goes down, gatherings around a campfire. The glow of the flames and the smell of burning wood signal its story time. So stories are told and retold. Exaggerations may occur from time to time but that’s part of the fun. And each year new stories are added. In fact this is often the time that someone makes a ridiculous comment or makes a blunder like dropping a blazing s’more into their lap.  When these things occur the ‘bungler’ becomes a nominee for the “Dickey Doo” Award which is awarded at the end of the vacation.  The lucky participant receives the “traveling” Dickey Doo t-shirt and the honor of being the most humiliated family member at the gathering.  I have been the proud receiver of the feared cloth award several times.  I didn’t mind because I looked at it as all of the branches of the family tree laughing with me and not at me. 🙂

Each year is a  little different then the previous one as the grandchildren go through various stages as they mature. It was especially noticeable this year as the older teenagers were not into campfire sitting with us oldsters. They were holed up in their ‘teen cave’ where videos games and movies were all the rage.

Personally I had a great time this vacation. I may have already mentioned a time or two that I am probably one of the few UMM swim class members in the history of the school to fail my beginners swimming test. So I experienced a break through this summer in the water recreation area when I was able to float in my tractor tire inner tube without my life jacket! The lake level was lower than past years so if I would have slipped out of my tire inner tube I could have walked to shore safely. What a ‘freeing’ feeling!

The following weekend the family tree experience continued but the branches on the tree were much older. We went from children, spouses and grandchildren in Minnesota to my siblings and their spouses in Ashland, Wisconsin. It would have been a senior citizen celebration but fortunately niece Katie and her two children Aubrie and Carly were visiting too and that lowered the age average. Their presence added the exuberance of youth and reminded us gray haired folks what life used to be like for us. (if we were able to remember that far back!)

Actually the weekend was really a “family tree” celebration. Our brother Jerry has been researching our family tree for years and we were meeting at my sister Pat’s home to celebrate a tombstone. Let me explain.

Our mother was a Touhey. Her father died when he was in his early 40’s and one of his siblings offered to raise my mother and her two sisters. Of course you can imagine how my grandmother took that offer. She refused the offer since she was a school teacher and was perfectly capable of handling that task herself. Well the refusal didn’t sit well with the Touhey relatives so they disowned our grandmother and her three girls. Our family has never heard from that side of the family tree again!

But in my brother Jerry’s sleuthing he discovered the unmarked grave of our great grandfather, Michael John Touhey. Also sharing that gravesite was a sister of our great grandfather as well as his son Michael John Touhey, Jr.  Since the grave contained no marker we siblings pooled our resources and erected a granite tombstone similar in shape to the tombstones that mark our mother and fathers’ graves in Graceville, MN.

So the weekend was designed to make the final inspection of the newly erected tombstone. The cemetery was in Bessemer, Michigan about thirty miles east of Ashland. We all agreed that the new tombstone looked great and it gave us satisfaction to know that finally our relatives’ resting place had a permanent marking.

Another thing that was special to me was my great grandfather’s name and date of birth. I was never told who I was named after so it came as a surprise to me to find out I had a great grandfather named ‘Michael John’. Was I named after him? We will never know. Secondly he was born in 1844 and I was born in 1944. Wasn’t that an interesting coincidence?

My sister and her husband live on the shores of Lake Superior. They have a beautiful home and we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, eating delicious food, sipping a little wine and visiting. It was especially fun getting to know our little great nieces whom we had never seen before except for pictures on Facebook. Also it was fun getting reacquainted with their Mom, Katie who is just a niece and not a ‘great niece’. But Kathie and I agreed she was indeed a ‘great’ mom! 🙂

So that’s my family tree blog in a nut shell. I see those family tree commercials on television and think do I want to have my DNA analyzed to be sure I’m 50% Irish and 50% Swedish as my folks have assured me of? I think not! But I might still change my name to Michael John O’Larson to let folks know that I am 50% Irish! I’d feel so much better on St. Patrick’s Day wearing the green if my Irish ancestry was more visible.

Until next time.