The day started (and ended, I might add) cloudy, rainy, and dark. The perfect kind of day for just curling up with a book, a pot of soup on the stove, and doing absolutely nothing! Well, I did put some soup on the stove - creamy cheese potato - but I decided not to curl up with the book.
Instead, I worked on family history. Now that is a big surprise! Since the kids weren't over yesterday, there wasn't much straightening to do around the house and the laundry was all caught up from Saturday, so I pretty much had an open day. I thought about doing some shopping - I really need some new things before I go to Iowa - but who wants to go out in the rain? So, I had a very nice day. I worked on little pieces for a couple of different people. I ended up with Bill's great-great-grandfather. I have a lot on him already, but I found some more. He was a wealthy plantation owner in Georgia before the civil war (and after, actually, but probably not as wealthy). He and his wife could not have children, so they adopted a son. He apparently knew that the fertility problem was her not him, as it is believed that he was probably the father of several of his mulatto slaves (he had 9 slaves in 1850 and 13 in 1860). When his wife died, he remarried a short time later. This is where the story gets creepy. His new wife was a niece of his first wife (the family probably wanted to keep the money in the family - Ha!). However, at the time they married he was 64 and she was about 16! They had three children, before he died. In his will, he left almost everything to the 2nd wife and the 3 children. His adopted son had died of measles after being wounded in the civil war and his two children were given a token inheritance, probably to prevent them from challenging the will. Very interesting!
So that was how I buried myself away during this rainy day. It was an interesting day, to say the least!
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