The following “first person sketches” were presented as part of a program at the Green family reunion that took place in Island Park Idaho in July of 2018.
Norma Green presided over a gathering of almost 80 people – families of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
I worked on these sketches in the months leading up to the reunion hoping that a first-person type of sketch would help bring selected ancestors to life better than simply reciting highlights of their lives and reading the abbreviated histories that are available.
The initial goal was to spark interest, love, and kinship in the hearts of the young, and very young. I confess that, in the end, the biggest awakening was my own. I also realized that the more that is written about someone, the more discrepancies there are regarding dates, places, people, and so on. While I endeavored to be as thorough as possible there are, I am sure, many mistakes as it was sometimes difficult to generate a common time-line from multiple sources.
The demands of life in a bygone era are something we can’t experience first-hand but the struggles, highs, lows, and desires of our ancestors confirm that the human condition doesn’t vary too far from the path that God intends us all to walk. I love and respect my ancestors and hope I have a portion of the determination they displayed in meeting their challenges head-on, and I pray that nothing I have written, in any way, demeans them in the perception of the reader.
