Family History

At our elementary school, students are required, during the first quarter of sixth grade, to submit a presentation to their history class about a family field trip they took over the summer.  Gideon was lucky because the Summer before he started sixth grade, our family drove from Virginia to Utah, so he had his pick of a lot of great history sites (he went with Mt Rushmore.)  This summer we aren't doing much traveling--just a short trip to Williamsburg.  And while Williamsburg is, indeed, a fabulous historical site, Serenity figures "everyone has been there and there will be a ton of reports on that this year."  She wants to do something different.

Rob, meanwhile, has within the last few years developed an avid interest in family history, and in tracking his family line back a couple hundred years, he discovered that he had relatives buried just a few hours drive from here.  In fact, on his grandfather's side, the first ancestor to migrate to America is buried here in Virginia--and he was a veteran of the Revolutionary war!  So he suggested visiting their grave sites as our family field trip.  Serenity LOVED the idea, and we decided to go this afternoon.

Gavin had a lot of confused ideas about zombies and skeletons when he heard we were making a trip to a graveyard.  He actually told me I needed to change into something "more scary."  I'm pretty sure he didn't actually expect zombies and skeletons, but he WAS expecting snakes for some reason.  He even brought a jar for catching them.  He was very disappointed to find no snakes anywhere.  And spent the rest of the trip begging to go hiking or fishing instead (the graveyards were way out in the country which is Gavin's favorite place to be.)

Rob seemed thrilled with the trip.  The first graveyard we visited seemed almost entirely full of Koiners/Coiners (the name was changed after the migrated from Germany and went through a few different spellings) and a brochure he picked up at the church even said that a Koiner built the church!  And that they were one of two prominent families in the area.

Serenity also really got into the whole thing.  I was surprised and pleased by how excited she was about it all.  Maybe she'll decide to be a historian instead of a veterinarian!  (both good choices)

All in all a successful trip, though a lot of driving for one day (about five hours in the car round trip, plus another hour of exploring/picture taking outside the car.)  Glad we went.  I think it will make for a good report!