Walking in an Ancestor's Footprints

Claudia & me

Last week the great-granddaughter of Claude Morton, the man who built my house, stopped by to see me. She lives in California and was driving cross-country with a friend to deliver a car to her daughter on the east coast. She had contacted me because she wanted to take a photo of herself with the house, and to meet me as well. We have been emailing back and forth ever since she mailed me an old photo of my house along with the plans from a 1902 issue of Ladies Home Journal. (For more about that, check out this post on my house research blog.)

It was so much fun to show her around, pointing out the parts of the house that would have been the same when her grandmother Jessie (who was two at the time the home was built) was growing up. When we went upstairs, Claudia wondered aloud which bedroom might have belonged to her grandmother. And she smiled as she pictured Jessie running up and down the same hallway we were standing in. I knew exactly how she felt, as I had experienced the same thing when I visited the home in Germany last fall that was built by my ancestors in 1717. It is hard to describe what it is like to walk in an ancestor's footprints, but I will never forget the thrill. I may still have goosebumps from it!

While researching my house back in 2007, I met with Claudia's second cousin in Chicago to scan some photos and documents that she had. Claudia has never met Holly, so I showed her all items I had about her Morton family. She was amazed by what I have in my possession. I told her I also have her family tree in my genealogy program so I can keep track of who is who. I may not have Morton blood running through my veins, but they are my family nonetheless!

The Morton family circa 1913