My dad has been doing some family history and found that I have a lot of family in this region--hence my love of sheep (what?).
When we arrived, we checked out the local cemetery, which had been destroyed by a local herd of cows. Many of the headstones had been pushed over and were thus impossible to read. We did find some family tombstones though! It was so interesting to see and be in the place where they were from and image what life must have been like for them.
To get the full experience, we stayed in the old family farmhouse which has been sold and turned into a B&B. It was so unreal to walk and sleep in the same house that ancestors lived in!
Now comes the miracle part:
Someone my dad and I really wanted to learn about was my great-grandfather. He died when my grandmother was very young, so we literally know nothing about him aside from his birth, marriage, and death certificates. When we went to the cemetary we couldn't find his tomb (it had probably been trampled by a cow or something=TIA). We even went to the local health clinic to try and figure out what part of the cemetary he was in--nothing.
We called the local museum throughout the week but no one answered and the time we stopped by it was closed!
Our very last day in Middleburg we decided to try going past the museum one last time. We prayed and then went over. It was open! The museum staff tried to help us, but didn't find anything. While my dad was talking to her, I had the word "bible" come to mind. I walked to a back room, and ignoring the "please do not touch" signs, started leafing through a stack of books on a table. The second book I picked up was an old Dutch bible with a dedication written on the inside cover to my great grandfather from his students!!!! This led to great excitement, phone calls, and a trip to the local high school where he used to teach.
When we arrived, we explained that we were looking for information about the school in the 1930's. The headmistress looked very surprised, and hurried back into her office. She came out holding a crumbling 1936 school almanac. She handed it to us and said, "I don't know why, but this morning I felt like I needed to clean out some drawers, I found this and put it to the side."
When my dad opened the book, we saw a picture of all of the teachers and a caption with my great grandfather's name! There was even a little bio about him, what he taught. Wow. My grandmother didn't even have a picture of her father!
So in short, family history is fun. And you should never listen to do not touch signs....sometimes.
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