Oh, The Weather Outside is… FREEZING!

I don't know about your family, but my family has a couple of people who are the unofficial family history compilers. You know, if you need (or want) to know about your ancestors they are the ones you go to. Usually they have the family history computer programs and have compiled the stories that get told at all of the family gatherings. I am one of the historians for my family.

Although we gather information and compile lists of family members and some stories, there are some things that we will perhaps never know. Questions that we have, that will not be answered, because the answers lie with someone who lived 100 or 200 years ago. Some of the most interesting questions, for me anyway, have to do with how they decided to settle where they did. Why Canada? Why Miramichi, New Brunswick? Why not somewhere else? What compelled them to move from where they were and start a new life somewhere else?

Some questions I have answers to. My family came to this area in 1822. I know that the original fellow who made the move to Canada was born about 1766. So you can see, I have a long stretch for those answers to why here. Not that I am wont to complain about where I and my family have lived for the last 187 years. There are no tornadoes, earthquakes or monsoons. There are no poisonous snakes or dangerous diseases like Ebola. We don't have to worry about yearly flooding. We only get the tail ends of the few hurricanes that happen to make it this far north. But still the question remains—why here?

Only once in a while do I really question the wisdom of my forefathers in settling where they did. Over the last few days the cold has begun to take its toll on me. When the daytime high does not get above -20° Celsius, and the wind makes it feel like -35° or colder, then I begin to question the decision to settle here. I can take the snow storms and I don't usually complain about the weather and such but… TURN UP THE HEAT ALREADY! Why couldn't they have settled someplace warmer—or at least left behind enough money for me to move there?