52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 – Week 14: Language

NOTE: I accepted the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge headed by fellow genealogy blogger Amy Johnson Crow. The idea behind this challenge is that you will receive email prompts, a word or phrase, every week, and you find something about your research or family history to write about.  Click HERE to read my first 52 Ancestors blog post in 2019.

I tell people all the time that I only know one language and that’s English. I do however know English very well. I am more than proficient in reading, writing, and comprehending English. Now spelling on the other hand, I’m not so good at. I blame my mother for that. She was literally my walking dictionary as a child. It didn’t matter where we were, if I needed something spelled, she just spelled it for me out loud. She never told me to look it up or sound it out. She just spelled it for me.

My mother has always had a way with words and writing. She studied journalism in college, worked as reporter for our local newspaper, and after a few years became the editor. I don’t remember a time when she didn’t have a book in her hand. She was always reading something. Anytime anyone in our community needed something written like a speech, an obituary, an article, or program they would always ask my mom would always do it for them.

I have seen her just walk around someone’s house look at the pictures on the wall, the awards that they had been given, get some additional information like military service, church affiliation, and education and be able to write a two-page obituary. Writing has always been my mother’s superpower.