My hobby and passion is genealogy and history. I started about 18 years ago knowing only my grandparents and one set of great grandparents. My Dad never knew his biological paternal grandfather's name, because he died before his son (My Dad's Dad) was born. He did have a curious oversized business card advertising a private orchestra business willing to do out of town gigs (with family name on it)...Over these 18 years, I have found over 2100 members of extended family, but the lines of interest are my maternal and paternal lines. My paternal line's family occupied a small town in Nebraska called Plattsmouth for most of thirty years, as 8 siblings made their mark there. They were my GG Grandparents and 3rd Great Uncles/Aunts.
The missing Great Grandfather was born there and was a talented musician, who also worked for the Union Pacific RR as his day job. He made a business trip to Missouri for the Road, and came back deathly sick with spinal meningitis and died soon after, never knowing that his wife was pregnant. His father (GG Grandfather) also worked for the railroad in Plattsmouth, but was about to transfer to Omaha (his family was already in Omaha), when he mysteriously fell 3 stories from his hotel room's window, shattering one leg after breaking his fall on an ice machine (45 feet). I had heard a family secret that was held very tightly until after all the parties had passed on, that dear old Gramps had been dancing at a party (verified) with a woman he had been having an affair with, and that her husband/boyfriend threw him out the window in some sort of altercation.
An uncle was a jailer/constable/politician who contracted/developed something that made him mentally not right. I think it was dementia, myself, but in any case, he disappeared from Plattsmouth to be at my GG Grandfather's side on the day they amputated the shattered leg. His wife was frantic because he was supposed to be bedridden. Uncle Jack had also lost an arm, 20 years before due to a RR accident (hence his career in law enforcement). The incident made his wife/caretakers to see a judge to have old Jack committed to an insane asylum in Lincoln, because although his mind wasn't right his body was still pretty strong/uncontrollable. Jack died 7 months later at the asylum, and due the caring nature of the times, a headline of the local paper screamed "JACK DIES IN AN INSANE ASYLUM." If you find the couple of small volumes of town history, you won't read about my ancestors, which pizzes me off! So I am am going to concentrate on historical Plattsmouth in first a Research class this semester (Showing a small towns conversion to the modern age by instituting power plants, telephones, automobiles, street cars, etc), and second into my Masters Thesis. I will slip in some family members into both projects....lol
