Hi everyone, I don't really know why I'm sharing this here, but it really means a lot to me so here I am.

As many of you know I ran away from home at the age of 12 years old and didn't have any contact with family for over 20 years.  When I reunited with family for the first time as a part of my recovery process, I didn't realize that there was a lot more of my extended family that I didn't know, not just my family of orgin.  When I was at my fathers funeral wake, many of my relatives thought I worked for the funeral home.  They would come up to me and ask where the bathrooms were, where they could smoke, how late the funeral home would be open, ect.  I didn't realize it at that time, but they were asking me because they didn't know me, and thought I must work for the funeral home.

Due to my absince from family so early on, I didn't really get to know my family.  Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, nieces and nephews.  And having dissociated from family, none of them were exposed to my alcoholism or addiction.  I had 2 years sober when I saw my family for the first time since the age of 12, and now I was 33.  I believe that this absince in my life made it very easy and welcoming for me to accept the love I found in the rooms of recovery, because I had not had it from any other source in many many years.  Keep in mind, if I was being raised in a loving environment I would not have ran so fast and hard from it at 12 years old.  I ran because I didn't believe I would live to reach 13 if I stayed where I was.

Well, this week was a real eye opener to me.  I got a hugh dose of family history.  One of my cousins sent me a bunch of family pictures, dating back to the mid 1800's and documents that help me form a picture of my family heritage.

I come from a long lineage of people that made a difference.  My grandfather was the Chief Inspector of the New York Rail System in the early 1900's.  With the documents was a record of his address to the NY State Senate that went to the heart of the meger pay scale that was assigned to his subordants.  He fought hard to get the ceiling on their pay raised so they could get adequate increases in earnings each year.

Before him was his father... Who was the Grand Master of the Free Masons of New York.  He served two terms in this position and retired from it in 1916. He was very active in establishing the first Union Trade center in New York, so that the workers could rally and strike if needed to get fair pay and employee benefits, without fear of being fired.  This is when craftsmen started becoming skilled tradesmen instead of "general labors" and they could take part in the policy and procedure of what was required to obtain apprenticeships, journeymenships and masterships for their trade.

Before him was his father, who was a journalist.  He was sent to prison twice in Germany for causing a upraising of the German people to "take back the Fatherland, from the infidels, the tyrants, and the bullies of government" in a document I was sent he is recorded as having written the following and having it published..."Everywhere our German brothers, in France as in Switzerland are stirring and ready to bring a sacrfice to the alter of our fatherland, for the holy cause of true freedom, with their fortunes, their sweat, their blood and their lives!  German brothers, hear the call, gather all your strength, shake off the oppressors yoke of slavery, the tyranny of those who have laid so heavy a burden upon us that as a nation we are bruised from carrying the weight of their law..."

and before him was his father... who was an alcoholic and a wannbe pirate.  During a drunken time, "suddenly the thought crossed his mind"....LOL that if he cut off his hand and got a hook put in its place, he could move to Enland and the people there would believe he was really a pirate... so what did he do?  He cut his hand off! Got a hook put in its place and moved to England. Family in England really thought he had lost his hand during a battle to take over a ship at sea.  They found out the truth when relatives in Germany and England started communicating after his death.

I also have a great uncle that was a surpreme court justice in NY in the mid 1800's.  

I also discovered that I'm offspring of the Freckler family lineage as well.  Martha Freckler went on a trip to England and there she met my great, great, great, great, great grandfather... they fell in love, got married, and had 9 sons' and daughters.  They opened a merchant store in a country side community and both lived to be over 100 years old.

History.  Now, I better understand where I got some of my "stuff" from in the blood line.  Some of it is saddening, but a lot of it is stuff I can be proud to have inherited.

My cousin Greg, has a couple of daughters that are up and coming artist... they don't shake the world the way older relatives have, but without a doubt they shake it in their own way.  I haven't met them yet, but hope to one day soon.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=312683275410845&set=vb.100000075267279&type=2&theater

Hope you enjoy the video... without a doubt, they know how to have fun! They are my father's sisters (my aunts) grandchildren.  I think... LOL  still trying to sort all this out, who is who in the lineage.. but having a blast finding out so much about my family lineage.  

John