a Mother's Day reminiscence ...

     My mother, Betty Quast Rebholz (1920-2011), was NOT a Church-Lady, and she was not interested in her 100% German family story. The German clippings I shared were not of interest to her. But I ignored that, and regaled her with stories going back 12 generations: a forgotten Quast branch of her protestant paternal tree; a great-grandfather's betrayal; forgotten surnames in her maternal line & their very early records at Old St. Mary's Catholic Church.

     She really enjoyed hearing about the strange experiences I had in the genealogy community. Her typical response was "You couldn't make this stuff up!"
     It was a real surprise when she triumphantly told her own story about me, shared by her hairdresser, who had attended a genealogy class at the Milwaukee Public Library!
     This was an Aha! moment because of an incident of verbal abuse I experienced at the local Family History Library: a patron named Tom, angry about my creation of this project, LOUDLY and rudely regaled patrons about my indexing project, referring to my personal life and my resumé; where else would he have learned such details but from the old biddies at the library?

Betty and I chuckled over Tom's classic Church-Lady behavior. She had her own anecdotes about that stereotype. 

     From then on she appreciated my stories about the Public Library's staff, retiree bullies, and threats from evangelical ladies that they would data-rape anything I published.

     Betty would also enjoy a good chuckle knowing that in May 2011 a stranger approached me at HER funeral service with a question about my father's family tree!

     You really can't make this stuff up.