Family Tree

Maybe it's because I have a son now. Maybe it's because all my grandparents have passed away. Maybe it's just because I'm about to have a birthday, which leads to inevitable contemplation of my own mortality. What will my loved ones remember about me when I'm old & grey? Regardless of the reason, I recently became a little engrossed in finding out about my family ancestry. Which lead me to, ancestry.com. After some searching with the names we already knew and starting our family tree, I stumbled across many more we'd never heard of. Like dad's great great grandfather, Louis "Levi" Moses. Can you believe it? We already had Levi in the family & didn't even know it. Then there was finding out that that same line consisted of professional photographers. [see right side of picture of store front in New Orleans.] There were folks who traveled on passenger ships from Germany and France to live here. Folks who settled in New Orleans and Dallas and Kaufman. They opened hotels (Marriott) and photographed soldiers (Moses) and played with Big Bands (McManus) and had kids and kids and kids. We were Jewish and Catholic and German and Irish and French... and that's just what I could find! I traced my mom's lineage back to 1680something. Crazy to think about what their lives might have been like then. And just how similar we all are. We too are musicians and photographers and I have a feeling we've been walking in their footsteps for years, without even really knowing it. Now we do.