As of today, the main writing task is done. The research will never end; that's just the way genealogy works. As new data becomes available, changes, additions, deletions have to be made to a family tree. It's an incredibly fluid thing. 

Just this weekend I ran across evidence of that when dipping back down in to my great grandparent's generation, suddenly both of their graves popped up on Findagrave.com. There are no pictures yet but the additions give me final proof of the birth and death dates and a confirmed physical location.

The rate information is being digitized is speeding up with new databases being made available online. The bad news is that you are never done. The good news is you get to dig forever! 

A lot of editing and proofreading awaits me but now I can start looking for a publisher and I can relax and enjoy my next trip to Maine. I hope to find more pieces of the puzzle on my next trip but all I have to do is plug in those bits. I shouldn't have to do major rewriting or even add any more people into the tree. (famous last words!)

My research and writing over the last few days has made me realize how lucky I am personally that my father and his father survived. Though I knew there was a constant theme of tuberculosis deaths throughout the generations in Maine, my family landed in Lynn, Massachusetts, in the late 1800s. I kept seeing occasional deaths but when I got into my great grandparents' generation, I realized that tuberculosis had become a scourge.

Tuberculosis reached its heights after industrilization began. Instead of associating with a limited amount of people, workers joined large groups making it easier to get TB. The overcrowding and lack of sanitation in the industrialized residential areas also had an major impact.

By the time my family moved into Lynn, there were only three living adults and only two that had children. My great great grandfather's brother, Henry, was the other. He and his wife had three children, all born in Lynn. His wife died in 1883 from bronchitis supposedly but then his daughter died in 1897 and son in 1901 from tuberculosis. The third daughter never had children.

My great great grandparents had ten children between 1870 and 1892. Two died young, two women never married but 17 grandchildren were born by 1909. The oldest son had four children. One of those four died at age 12 in 1908, followed by her mother in 1918 and sister in 1925. They were all tuberculosis deaths. 

Meanwhile, the second son lost his fourth daughter in 1904 and his wife by 1909. Since the daughter only lasted a few months with TB, it's entirely possible that the wife also died from tuberculosis. At some point between 1900 and 1910 my great great grandparents must have realized how dangerous Lynn was. They had witnessed the deaths of at least four grandchildren and one daughter-in-law by 1908. 

They left, moving to Candia, New Hampshire, and back to a farming existence. The third son, my great grandfather, left the state by then, heading for Philadelphia and New Jersey and he didn't lose any children. None of the other children lost spouses or children to TB. By the time the three youngest went out on their own, they were able to truly thrive and prosper though it did take one or more generations for that to happen with their siblings.

I've said from the start of this project that the Scotch-Irish were survivors and that's what my family did.They survived. And I'm glad they did.