What Are the Odds....

What are the odds....a sibling decided to move to another state, a small town surrounded by mountains.  A few years later, my mother decided to join him.  Neither sibling or parent had ever been interested in their family history, until I filled them in that they had moved to the same small town that my mothers 3rd great grandfather and family were buried.  They thought I was kidding and asked me to prove it.

On a recent trip to visit them, I took my mother to the small church and cemetery where they were buried.  My mom, who grew up in poverty, never having a real home, moving from state to state as a child, never putting down roots, suddenly had a sense of belonging, a new found sense of pride as she looked as these very old headstones with her family name.   We went back to her house and I pulled out all the information I had on my laptop.  She was astonished to find that the maternal side of her family had been in that particular state and area since the 1700's. The pride she felt when reading the historical documents of her ancestors, detailing their roles in the settling and building of that great state.  If felt as though I had given her a precious gift.
 
I can't wait to fill her in on her paternal side which goes back to the early 1600's here in the United States.

What are the odds.......