I am one lucky lady. How lucky? Lucky enough to know my great-great grandpa--Oren Detweiler, father to my great grandmother Mary Wyse. I have vague memories of being at his 100th birthday party and have seen numerous pictures of my young cousins and I surrounding him on this special day. I never met his wife, though, Nettie (Miller) Detweiler, daughter of Jeffery Miller and Katherine Stutesman.
Oren is the son of Samuel W. Detweiler and Malinda Kauffman. In doing a little research, I discovered that Malinda is from Wayne County, Ohio--a hub for Amish Mennonites. In addition, she was baptized at Bethel Mennonite Church in West Liberty, Ohio--a church whose history claims that the church was founded when "a group of Amish young adults...requested to be baptized into the Mennonite church rather than the Amish Mennonite Church" (http://www.bethelchurchwl.org). Sweet. Seems like my great-great-great grandmother was a rebel.
The names of my great grandfather's, Lawrence Wyse, parents were Albert Wyse and Abigail Baer. I never knew them, but I think my mom did.
The other half of my maternal grandparents include a whole different, very different, multitude of people. My great grandmother, Ida Stokes, is still living. In fact, she was at my high school graduation when there were four generations of women in my family represented. Ida is the daughter of Curtis Smith and Viola Moon.
For one reason or another, I almost feel overwhelmed by all of this information. I immediately feel the need to want to know everything about all of these people, look at every family photo, read our family history books (that I had no idea existed), and visit everywhere from Wayne County, Ohio to Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
I feel proud. I feel contented. I feel pleased, and intrigued, and inquisitive all at once. I feel full.
In the words of my mother, "My cup runneth over."
No comments:
Post a Comment