The 12th Century scholastic, Bernard de Chartres is quoted as
saying "In comparison with the ancients we stand like dwarves on
the shoulders of giants". This thought was later taken up by Sir
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) when he wrote, "If I have seen further,
it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". The study of
ones' genealogy can be somewhat humbling because you come to
realize that many of our traits were passed on to us by
ancestors who were at times indeed giants. Individuals who left
their homelands to seek a better life in the new world. Once
here they worked hard to survive. Before the advent of
television, families would gather around the dining table after
supper and tell the stories of their aunts and uncles,
grandparents and great- grandparents. About twenty five years
ago we began to collect these knowing that our children and
children's children would not know the richness of these
stories. We thank our parents and other relatives for passing on
what they knew. We found that some of the stori