Ancestor Fever

Ancestor Fever;  It strikes at times like the flu. 

The eyes get fuzzy, breathing shallow, the body stiff from hours at a key board. Frustration. Stupor. My sensible self is telling my obssesive self,"SNAP OUT OF IT!" 

Sensible Me: Stop. You have stuff to do.

      Obsessed Me: mmmm… Just one more thing.

Sensible Me: Yeah, you said that 20 minutes ago.

      Obsessed Me: I know, I know.  But I gotta do x,y,z, before I forget.

Sensible Me: Time's up!

       Obsessed Me: Gotta file this clue somewhere so I can find it later.

Sensible Me: STOP NOW.

       Obsessed Me: Uh huh…. but its so hard to get rolling and I've got this momentum.

Sensible Me: Sometimes, I think you might be possessed by spirits.

       Obsessed Me: Could be.

Sensible Me: Yeah, well… how come these spirits are not forthcoming with answers?  

Besides,  is chasing dead people around for hours on end how you should be spending your time? 

When my mind goes into this obsessive state, it only wants to focus on the past. It is not a random past, rather a particular past with a particular set of people. It could be the Acadians of Port Royal, or the miners of Rosario in Sinaloa, Mexico, or the Latino immigrants of San Francisco’s North Beach.  

This episode of Ancestor Fever is about the Pennsylvania past. The past of our Great Grandfather John R Allison, his sister Louisa Allison and his mother Sarah Gurley Allison in the village of Greencastle, Pennsylvania circa 1850.

Obsession defined is the  domination of thoughts by a persistent idea.  This time it is, who were the Gurleys? Where did the come from?  Persistence is what it took to locate Sarah Gurley, our great grandmother. Now the question is can we go a generation back into the past to locate her kin?

It is a puzzle, detective problem... The odd thing is I have a lifetime of avoiding puzzles, and no love for detective stories. So this is more like an obsession. Or perhaps it is possession.

Whatever it is, the spirits of the past are pushing to continue the search.
And I seem to comply.