“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 862 (Monday) – ancestry apples

Periodically, I open random photo folders on the laptop. Many photos are organized in folders titled “Dogs,” “Family,” “Events,” and such. Others are just wild and loose in the main PC Pictures folder.

Tonight, I clicked on a couple images that are loose in the folder. One is a newspaper story that was in the Fitchburg Sentinel on May 24, 1951. The article titled “Auxiliary Party Attended by 48” mentioned my maternal grandmother and a mother daughter party. The auxiliary to Fraternite court, Catholic Order of Foresters held a “regular meeting” which was followed by French songs sung by children. Rose bowls were presented to the oldest and youngest mothers present, and Grandma Olive was the youngest. In 1951 she was 38 years old and had six children, four of whom were daughters. 

Now I want to know the age of the the oldest mother at the meeting who received the other rose bowl. These details would have made the newspaper story more interesting. I had to do the math myself to calculate grandma Olive's age. This is the same paper that published the names of all the poor kids who were treated to a day of fun and prizes by some feel-good organization. The list included a bunch of my aunts and uncles, so I know they weren’t shy about details or protecting personal info. And imagine being the broke-ass family with half their kids listed as guests at the event for the underprivileged children. Cripes.

A fun thing about the article with Grandma Olive is that the next column contains a story about Mom’s cousin who was in a car accident in the general neighborhood where my nuclear family lived decades later. It’s not the first time I’ve found issues of the paper with stories including someone from both sides of the family published on the same date. I guess that is bound to happen in small town life.

My 8th cousin!?!

Speaking of cousins, a new and exciting ancestry surprise was delivered to my inbox from a cousin on Mom’s side. He has done a lot of research on Grandpa Ray’s line, and apparently, I am an 8^th cousin to actor Matt Damon through my great-great-great grandmother Anna Hőgvag. How exciting is that?!?! 

I had been feeling a little sad that my only famous relatives were the very long-ago Johnny Appleseed and Count Rumford on Dad’s side. 

Thanks to Mom’s side for coming to the rescue with a current celebrity relative. To quote Matt’s character in Good Will Hunting, “How do you like them apples?” I like them just fine, cousin Matt. I finally feel like I'm somebody. I bet he will be equally thrilled to learn we are related. If he isn't, I'd rather not know, thanks.