my last name is Lemieur, if you hadn't noticed.

Well, first, before I get into the Lemieurs, lets catch up here.  Dove & I hung out with Antler and had a great day hanging with him, filled with good conversation about what on earth we are all doing in life, where our "movement" is headed, and how we'll be involved with it.  This included lots of hmmming and hawing over beers intertwined with a lot of laughs and storytelling. Good stuff. Good stuff.

Then we hung out with my other cousin (the boys are twins) and his girlfriend, who is a sweetheart.  I'm glad we all catch up every few years.

this is us playing scrabble. oooooooo exciting.

THIS is a teardrop trailer. i really wanted one for this trip, but figured out it was impractical. So I just drooled appropriately as I would pass them on the highway.  I mean, really. HOW AWESOME IS THAT THING??

Ok so anyways, after Chicago, Dove and I drove up to Petoskey, Michigan, where my dad was born and raised. We stayed a night with my Aunt Diane & Uncle Bill, who I haven't seen in probably over 10 years. They are really dear to me and getting to visit with them was really valuable to me. I forget about family sometimes because we are so so far away, but they mean a lot to me and I was glad to spend time with them.

At one point, we started talking about our genealogy.  They both have done extensive research on both of their families and reported that in their system, they have over 80,000 family members that they have records on. Crazytown!  When I was younger, I started doing some research on both sides of my family and got about 50 people in my little family tree and thought I was a CHAMP.  Ha.  Little did I know...

So I looked through her binder of Lemieur/Lemieux family records. It was great.

This is the family coat of arms.

The piece of paper that went along with the coat of arms says this:

From the historical and enchanting region of France emerged a multitude of noble families, including the distinguished Lemieux family.  Originally, the French people were known only by a single name. The process by which hereditary surnames were adopted in France is extremely interesting. Surnames evolved during the Middle Ages when people began to assume an extra name to avoid confusion and to further identify themselves.  Often they adopted names that were derived from nicknames. Nickname surnames reflected the physical characteristics or attributes of the first person that used the name. The name Lemieux is a nickname and is derived from the Old French word mieux, which means "best". It was given to someone well loved in the community, or someone who was exceptional in some way, such as beauty or valued skill.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Gabriel Lemieux who arrived in Quebec in 1647 from Normandy, along with Pierre Lemieux who may be presumed to be his brother or father.

Pretty cool, right? I think its awesome that however hundreds of years later, we are all still bearing the honored name of someone long ago who was thought of so highly by others as to be called "the best".  Whoever that was must have been something pretty special.  Something to live up to.

This is my great grandfather holding my Grandpa Ralph on his lap along with his 2 sisters. This is a terrible photo of the photo, but great grandpa looks seriously Native. There is no record of Native American on his side, but... Anyways, my great grandma died shortly after giving birth to my Grandpa Ralph. Then G-Gramp's sister Edel helped raise the kids.

this is the funeral card for my.. great great grandpa. I'm amazed she got ahold of some of this stuff. 

This is how she's keeping track of folks.

this is a terrible photo of a photo of my Grandma Helen and Grandpa Ralph. I never knew either of them.

Learning about old family stories is one of my favorite things. I would like to spend more time digging through all that with Aunt Diane. She's got the key to that all up there.

Gotta say, I surprised myself by shedding a couple randomly emotional tears after leaving their house.  The two of them are such beautiful spirits who I have grown so distant with, it's crazy. Some would say thats just how things go. I don't think it has to be that way, although it often is.  I, of course, forgot to snap a photo of the 3 of us and I'm kicking myself for it now.  So when Dove & I stopped for gas after leaving their house, I bought a fleece with "Up North Michigan" on it so I'd remember the trip. I'm such a goober.  But Dove got one too, just cuz. haha  Maybe I should just find my way to Michigan more than once every 12 years.  Maybe.

I'm now staying with Aunt EllaMarie & Uncle Larry on my mom's side. We went to Larry's volleyball game tonight and are taking a zumba class bright and early in the morning, so I'm going to hit the hay.