Being in this hobby you study a lot about your local history, you learn to tell fact from fiction, you learn about the good and the bad. Does anyone else ever feel good or bad about their ancestors actions?

I had a great great grandfather who was in a moonshine gang who was involved in a shootout with federal officers and one of them was killed. Reading the newspapers and being related to the gang side of it is interesting to me. The marshal who was killed had his great great grandson involved in a ceremony a few years ago in honor of the marshal. I thought about contacting him but never felt right about it. Even if it wasn’t my great great grandfather who pulled that trigger he was still there, he was still involved.

I’ve got a great uncle who was hanged for his crimes and a legend in our area.

I’ve got a 5th great grandmother who lived to a 101 and have countless stories told about who she really was and how she created the largest family in my area.

From the good to the bad I never knew these people I couldn’t stop them from their bad or help their good but they’re related to me. I know them through what they left behind.