Family ties

I recently got this fabric panel for Amy and cousin Mary Margaret. I'm thinking of embroidering the names in the squares although I might do better with a fabric pen. It's a little confusing though. I feel like Amy belongs up in the branches, but the tree is set up so that she would fit better on the trunk and her parents and grandparents would go up in the branches. Rob's family on one side and my family on the other. How would you fit in the names? You would have to pick just one side of the family or have ten children to make a trunk-up approach work.

Family trees and genealogies have been a kind of theme lately. The family listserv has been buzzing with details about my Mom's Dad's side of the family and their early days in this country. It has been so fun to learn the little stories that people remember. I couldn't help but think that these were stories about Amy's family. It made me want to learn all the details and write them down so that she would know them, because I know I'll forget by the time she asks me. What a lot of responsibility. She can always look up their names, but will she know the story about her great great great grandfather sleeping on the doorstep of his future father in law's shop in New York? Or about his steam-powered car? 

I have this picture of my grandfather. He's about Amy's age, I guess, and I was surprised at how much Amy looks like him in this photo. I think she mostly looks like her daddy, but now I think she might look a little like her great grandfather...

I tinted this picture of her. She's not making the same face or anything, but I can still see it. I can mostly see it because I know her and I've seen her make the little smile smirk from the above picture.

Here's a modern style picture so she can show off her beautiful blue eyes. Are those May eyes? Jones? Robleto? Burnham?