BALDWIN GENEALOGY

I am an avid genealogist, in fact I have been accused of being an addict of it. I have loved to be involved with the Baldwin genealogy line for many years. One evening as I was sitting watching out the window while I took a break, I suddenly realized that in my particular branch of the genealogy tree I was the end of my line. I had never thought about it before but at that time I penned the few lines below.

So good bad or indifferent here is a thought that I had that day----

The Allegory of the Baldwin Orchard

 

I was sitting doing genealogy today and since I have moved my office upstairs I was also watching the breeze blow the leaves on the trees. Then as one leaf fell it made me think of all the leaves that fall off the tree in the fall. Somehow I connected with, the last leaf on the tree and how it hangs on but eventually loses the battle and falls to the ground.

 

I am that last leaf on My Baldwin apple tree. Of course I am not the last Baldwin as there or tens of thousands of them in the United States and many more all over the world. However I AM the last one on my tree.

 

Just for fun here is how it goes—

Caleb Baldwin had 10 children of which 3 were boys. One of those boys was Caleb Clark Baldwin and he had 9 children of which 6 were boys. One of those boys was Caleb Hyrum Baldwin and he had 12 children of which 10 were boys. One of those boys was William Ancel Baldwin who had 2 children of which 1 was a boy. That boy was William Wallace Baldwin, who was my father. William Wallace Baldwin had 2 children of which 1 was a boy (Me). Wallace Ray Baldwin had 4 children of which one was a boy. Steven Ray Baldwin my only son passed away 21 Feb 2013 and he never had any children. So that is the end of the Baldwin name on my tree in the Baldwin orchard.

 

I am 81 years old so there are no more Baldwin leaves hiding in MY tree. There are a lot of leaves in my orchard with Baldwin names and of course there are a lot of leaves still left on my tree who do not have the Baldwin name.  However I am the last leaf on my Baldwin tree and like the last leaf in the fall I am just barely hanging on, and on a cold winter day I shake and wave in the wind and look at all the other’s in the orchard that have fell from the tree and are gone, or they like me are just hanging on.

 

Of course there are more trees in the orchard with the Baldwin name and many of them have been very prolific. However it is a little sad for me to know that when I am gone my individual Baldwin tree will not progress with the Baldwin name as I am hanging on as tight as I can and the winds seem to be blowing harder and harder each year, month or day, so eventually I to will fall and my particular tree in the Baldwin orchard will die and our line will never produce a Baldwin again.

 

22 Aug 2013