Ancestor Approved Award

I was pleased to learn over the weekend that I had received the "Ancestor Approved Award" from Linda McCauley at Documenting the Details and Lori over at Genealogy and Me. THANK YOU both for recognizing Flipside with this honor. As a recipient of this award, I am to list 10 things I have learned about my ancestors that have surprised, humbled or enlightened me and then pass the award on to 10 other genealogy bloggers who I feel are doing their ancestors proud. I was surprised category:

1. To learn from my maternal great grandfather's Civil War Pension File that he was sent to a mental institution for "lunacy" in the early 1890's.

2. To learn from a cousin in Hartlepool, that my paternal great grandparents followed Fred Olesen to America. I don't think that was true.

3. To learn that my paternal gggggg grandparents owned slaves.

4. To learn that my maternal great grandfather lost a leg in a train accident before 1900 in Youngstown, Ohio I was enlightened category:

5. That my paternal great grandfather was a census enumerator for the 1900 West Virginia census in Morgantown, West Virginia.

6. That the same paternal great grandfather was an elected official in Morgantown, West Virginia.

7. That the small village of Cannon's Mill in Columbiana County, Ohio was named for my ggg grandfather, Lindsay Cannon and his mill.

In the humbled category:

8. By the strength of my paternal great grandmother, Jessie Pool VanGilder to make a life for herself and her three girls following her husbands early death.

9. At the fortitude it took my maternal ggg grandfather to fight the US government in the mid 1850's and win. They tried to make him pay back the pension money that was given to his father-in-law following his death.

10. At the courage of all of my late 1700 and early 1800 pioneer ancestors who began to cross the wilderness to find a home inland from the original colonies. This chosing of ten to receive awards is always so difficult as all the blogs I read are worthy. I have checked to see those blogs that have already received this award and will try to send it along to fellow genealogy bloggers who have yet to be recognized. 1. Hummer at Branching Out Through The Years 2. Barbara at Life From the Roots 3. Terri at The Ties That Bind 4. Linda at Exploring Almost Forgotten Gravesites in Ohio 5. Liz at My Big Fat Cajun/ Irish/Scottish/English/German/French/Southern Family Blog 6. Tina at Gen Wish List 7. Claudia at Claudia's Genealogy Blog 8. TK at Before My Time 9. Diana at Random Relatives 10. Dorene at Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay