Shaking the Family Tree

SS Cincinnati, Pre-WWI


 There are times when I pick up where I left off with working on my family tree and it's like falling into a black hole of time loss.  Though I shouldn't complain because I love the immersion in the past, and sometimes I find such gems.  The above ship is the one my Italian ancestors crossed the Atlantic Ocean on in 1913.  Later that same ship was refitted for use in World War I, rechristened the USS Covington and sunk July 2, 1918 by a German torpedo.

See how this can be addicting?  Now I've discovered that nearly all of my German ancestors are actually from the Alsace-Loraine part of France, though formerly belonging to Germany, and even more formerly to France, again.  The territory has gone back and forth, but it doesn't seem to effect the people of the region much as they have their own flag, customs, governing bodies, and German dialect.