My father-in-law passed away yesterday afternoon.  He was 89 years old.  In that full life he gave the world 11 children including my Wife. He really had two families. With his first wife, he had six children, the oldest now in his sixties. With my wife's mother, he had five more. My wife is only 35 so you can see they great difference in age.  My family history is also spread in years with older parents having young children. This makes family geneaology real easy—I'll post something on next week's Way Back Wednesday.  As my wife's pedigree goes, her father was only three generations removed from Devil Anse Hatfield of Hatfield-McCoy feud fame.  Their recorded family history spans back to Shakesperean England.

My father-in-law was born in the hills of West Virginia during the Great War.  Images from Sgt. York with Gary Cooper come to mind.  When he was 5 or 6 years old, his father was shot and killed over a road construction dispute.  He never knew any other details as to why but, they were Hatfields and those things happen.  Anyway, he went to live with an aunt and later a sister who raised him.  Since there was no social security and widows pensions then, all of his siblings were scattered around various families.

Growing up in a rather rural region, he spent a lot of time hunting and roaming some wild territory. Unfortunatly, he has been mostly infirm during the time I have known him.  He would have been a wonderful hunting instructor had he been a little able.  As it is, I have at least been able to enjoy several interesting stories from the West Virginia hills that included everything from coon hunting to bear encounters and even a ghost story or two.

He will be missed.