Show for Ancestors

photo by Hendricks Pioneer Newspaper

About a year ago I discovered, via ancestry.com, a little town in Minnesota that my Great Great Grandparents settled in when they first came to America. It turns out that BOTH of my Great Great Grandparents on my fathers side lived in this town and actually very close to each other.

Well, last weekend I did a show in this town. One of the interesting parts was that it turned out I was related to probably half the audience. The show was outdoors and part of their annual Harvest Festival. The main street stores all had my poster hanging in the windows. Before and after the show people would come up and introduce themselves and explain the family connection they had to me.

In all my years, I can't recall ever performing on a street! I wonder if this is how David Blaine started, lol. But it didn't matter at all. Everyone from the Harvestfest was AT my show and they were a splendid audience. They simply couldn't have been better. The show was extremely well received. Afterwards I sold a slew of posters and DVDs. The local newspaper, the Hendricks Pioneer put my photo on the front of their paper a few days later (see photo above).

After the show, I got to see both of my Great Great Grandparents farms. The original houses are still on the two properties. I also found the cemeteries where they all are buried. Below is a picture of my GGGrandparents on their farm,and next to it is me, sitting in front of the same barn on their old property today.  It was quite an experience and I can't say enough good things about ancestry.com as I never would have found out about my past without their help.