Well, spring has arrived, but in Tucson, we went straight from a mild winter to summer with high temperatures of 103 this week! That doesn’t bode well for summer, except it might mean lots more time for genealogy if I’m staying out of the heat!

I had no idea it was National Memory Day, but that is our SNGF challenge this week from Randy Seaver.

1)  March 21 is National Memory Day.  How can we celebrate, and participate, in the day?  I asked AI tool ChatGPT how, and it suggested “Capture a Memory Before Its Gone;” “Rescue and Identify Old Photos;” “Record a Oral History;” “Organize One Small Thing;”  “Share a Story With Family;” “Visit or Virtually Honor Ancestors.”

2)  For SNGF this week, do one or more of those tasks or some other related task of your choosing.

There are several choices in Randy’s list of suggestions, but there is one that I’ll go with – Visit or Virtually Honor Ancestors.

I’ve spent a lot of time during the last week or so taking a new deep dive into my Loyalist ancestor, John Adams, his parents, siblings, wife and children, reviewing what I had uncovered and mentally organizing his life.

John gave up a lot when he chose to take his family to Nova Scotia at the close of the American Revolution – family, friends and a comfortable life in Fairfield County, Connecticut – and became a fisherman living in the West Isles of New Brunswick, Canada. Given where he lived, it is unlikely he had much, if any, contact with his Connecticut family ever again.

Barbara Tien, who hosts Project Kin invited me to have a conversation with her on Substack last Sunday as part of her Stories 250 project, which share the sacrifices and hardships of those who fought on both sides of the American Revolution.

Thank you, Randy and Janice, for this week’s topic.