Happy Grandparents Day!

Letter to my kids I just realized how much i failed in appreciating my grandparents while they were around. Its a rare treat to have been able to meet your grand parents.   Have you ever really asked yourself "where do you come from and where are you going?" I am very fascinated with that question. Yet never really looked that far back about where I came from. In the last few years I've increasingly become interested in my heritage and ancestry.  It was when I read my great great grandmother's journal from 1906=1917 that I began feeling a deeper connection to my ancestors.  I am grateful that my parents are still around to give me and those in this generation some kind of contact with the past. My father never met Doris, but her daughter, his grandmother was a true inspiration to him and helped shape who he became. Your great great great grandmother, Doris' journal has three main sections: their time in Germany in 1906; the last several months of her husband's, your great great great grand father, Ferdinand's life; and her last years in India during Word War I and the internment and expulsion of Germans in British India.   In my research about Doris, your great great great grandmother, I discovered she did not know her grandmother. I wonder what sense of heritage she had. Born in 1857 in Holstein, Germany she and her brother went to India in the late 1860s.  She married Karl Fedinand Hahn in 1871 and had twelve children (one died at 2 and one died when he was 18).  It was Doris who  altered the course of our VOSS branch of the family tree. We have records of the generations before her that go back 7 generations to 1632 through the paternal line. The whole line of Vosses lived first in Halsted, Germany (1632- 1766) then in Holstein or Ulstein, Germany (180? - 186?, whenever Doris left home).  One translation of the town where Doris was born is "Utmost End". I found that rather symbolic. Her life was remarkably different from her parochial ancestors.    grandmothers: left your great great right your great (my grandmother)      Beginning with "Doris" Voss we have 3         generations through the maternal line to your        grandfather, Ted.          These three women: Doris, Louise, & Marie all went     out as missionaries to India and then married         another missionary soon after. Historical records     show practically nothing of their accomplishments     during their life long devotion to their work in India.      I hope to alter that. My trip to India is partially to     begin retracing their steps, starting with Doris in    1910 up in Mussoorie. I am currenlty researching     and will go to India in hopes of writing a book about    How Doris and Ferdinand traveled from  the plains to Mussoorie in 1910       this undocumented life. Like any good story it kind of starts in the middle and then tracks back and then forwards.  I begin on the same ground where our paths crossed, up in Mussoorie.  Her time there is a difficult time in her life as she faces the mortality of her partner of 35 years.  In May 1910 she went to Mussoorie, up in the foothills of the Hymalayas, in hopes that Ferdinand's would recover. Sadly, he passed away and is buried there.   In following trips I hope to return to India to piecemeal the holes that we are finding online. It really is a family effort. Grandpa's cousin, translated Doris' journal and works written by Ferdinand (your great great great grandpa). I need to contact  another cousin from that generation, who lives in Germany to get more German details. My sister has done a lot of research about this and all other branches of the family tree with input from a couple of other family members. Who knows there might even be a role for you to play. I'd like to hear your thoughts if any of this strikes a chord, please jot down your thoughts.