Small ~ 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks ~ Week #32

This weeks prompt happens to be the opposite of last week. It took a little while to think of something large to write about. However, this week it was a lot easier. Small to me is me!

Growing up I was a lot shorter than my parents and my older sister. I always felt out of place when we went somewhere because people always thought I was a lot younger than I was. My Dad was 6 ft. 2 in. tall, my mother was 5 ft. 9 in. tall and my sister was 5 ft. 10 in. tall. Me? I measured a mere 5 ft. 5 ½ in. tall.

Even my 3 children grew up to be a lot taller than me. They always laughed when I told them I was the shortest person in my entire family. They thought I was making it up. I told them about the time when we moved to Missouri and I attended my first family reunion. Most of the family were over 6 feet tall. I was about 13 years old at the time and everyone thought I was about 10! They didn’t believe me.

In 2010 my husband and I took a trip to Missouri to visit some cousins I hadn’t seen in 24 years. I also arranged to meet some new relatives that I had made contact with on social media. We had a wonderful time. I am the photographer in the family, and I am hardly ever in any of the photos that are taken when we go anywhere. Thankfully my husband insisted on me getting a photo with my first cousin and a few of his kids. I am so glad I did. When I returned home, I was able to prove that I am indeed the shortest one.

I can’t positively say that I don’t have a relative that is shorter than me, I just haven’t personally met one yet. Also, I have no proof that my ancestors were all very tall people, but I assume a few of them had to have been.

I received permission to use the two photos I included in this blog.  Can you guess which is my cousin in the first photo?  I am the short one in the second one.  As a final remark, “In light of the prompt this week I decided to keep it short!”

I am a professional genealogist, writer, photographer, wife, mother, and grandma. I have two books available on Amazon.com: Your Family History: Doing It Right the First Time and Planning Your Genealogy Research Trip. You can also connect with me via Facebook or Twitter.