52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 15

lonely road

I almost didn’t write anything for this week as the prompt is Taxes. There are no ancestors that I know of who had any interesting tax payments, or who went to jail for nonpayment of taxes. I know of none who were tax collectors. A suggestion was made to write about the ancestor who has been the most taxing, and for me that would be Thompson Hightower. But I have written extensively about the trials and tribulations I have had researching him.

For me the most taxing (and frustrating) thing about doing genealogy is the fact that no one in my family is interested in my beloved hobby. Oh, they will listen when I tell them about a new discovery. And some are eager to see the family tree. But I read with envy the accountings of siblings or cousins or mothers and daughters who are on this journey together. In addition to halving the work load, how fun it would be to travel with someone who is as excited about finding a new birthdate from the 1800s or tromping through an old cemetery searching for a death date as I am!

It has been a solitary pursuit for me, and I only hope that when I am gone all of my hard work doesn’t get tossed in the trash along with the other things that have been important in my life.