2021

When I first started genealogy in the 1970s as a teenager, the 19th century felt close by.  My great-grandparents had just died in the 1950s and 1960s and were all born in the 1880s.  I felt like I could touch them and be transported back to the 19th century without much trouble.  My grandparents were all alive.  Queen Victoria had died in 1901 just 60 years before my birth.  She was the epitome of the 19th century, a time named after her.

But now, the 19th century seems far away.  It was 200 years ago.  Queen Victoria would be 201 years old this year.  In January, it will be the 200th birthday of my great-great-great grandmother Abigail Cody Stack.  I wrote a lengthy article on her and her husband Thomas (who lived to 1899, just one year from the 20th century).  There are several 200th anniversaries in 2021 for my extended genealogical family.  But now, that seems so far away.  This year was the 200th anniversary of the death of my 5 times great-grandfather Thomas Pinkham who fought in the American Revolution. 

It is strange that I have nephews and nieces born in this century in 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2009.  They will live out their lives in the 21st century.  There was a time when the 21st century was deep in the future in movies and books.  But here it is happening right now.

It's been 400 years since my ancestors landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Amazing.  390 years since they settled in Boston.  But all of that now seems so long ago.  Perhaps because 2020 seemed like more than year in living, all that came before seems even more distant in the past.  But I remember the 19th century being very close when I was young.