Wow - this one is a tough one for me.  It truly is.  Given my passion for genealogy and the amount of research I have done it would be a dream come true for me to be able to talk to my ancestors.  What I wouldn't give to be able to time travel and just stop in and chat with them, especially if there was a way to do so and it not freak them out.  Can you just imagine going back to say the 1600's to chat with on of your early American ancestors?  I can see it now - Norwich Connecticut, 1640's.  Major John Mason is on a mission to deal with the Indians and BAM there I appear.  I believe that would indeed freak him out!! :-) Me in jeans and a t-shirt just hanging out in a time where women were 2nd class citizens and wore dresses. Of course I would have my camera and digital recorder. I am guessing I might be considered a witch.  So this would be fascinating, but perhaps dangerous.  But I confess, it is something I have dreamed about and often thought of writing a book about time travel and meeting ones ancestors to reveal one's heritage.... it is on my bucket list.

But if I could time travel and just spy on them - THAT would be cool.  I descend from Charlemagne so you KNOW I would want to check in on him.  Then I would want to visit King Henry II and thank him for having the affair with Ida de Tony (otherwise I would not exist) and I would love to see his wife Eleanor of Aqutaine.

I would also like to chat with my ancestors where I have some brick walls.  My great great grandfather John Wesley Martin.  I would so love to know who his parents are.. but alas so far the effort to find them has been futile.  I even visited his grave and told him if he wanted to manifest and tell me that I would not wet myself, scream and run.  But he didn't say a word.  I would also like to talk to some of my Revolutionary War ancestors to see what it was like to fight for htis country's independence. And of course the numerous Civil War ancestors.  I cannot fathom what they went through.

I would love to hang with my Great Great uncle, John Luther Branch as he gave orders for his cadets to fire upon the Star of the West on Jan 9, 1861 at the brink of that horrid war.

I would love to talk to Abram Martin and see what it was like serving under Geroge Washington, especially at Braddocks defeat.

I would love to talk to Paul Patrick and see what it was like to serve in the War of 1812. Then I would want to chat with his son Luke Patrick, who died enroute to Tennessee and is buried in an umarked grave we think at a church in Cumberland Gap. I wonder what his last thoughts were as he wasted away from that fever so far from home...

You know - I would love to talk to my maternal grand parents again to talk about all they saw grpwing up - they were both born in the very early 1900s (1901 and 1904).  They saw WWI, the invention of the car, were married 4 months before the stock market crashed in 1929, the beginnings of flight and all the medical and technical advancements they saw... It was an incredible century they lived in - so many changes and developments. Granddad was in Okinawa during WWII on a medical ship.  He saw some horrible things. But I wasted that time.  I was just a kid wrapped up in kid things and never really talked to them their lives and thoughts.  and now it is too late.  I also missed the opportunity with Mom as she was taken from me too soon.  So I have started the process with Dad and will spend Thanksgiving interviewing him so I will  have his voice recorded.  I can't change the past but I can try to preserve things for the future.

They say in every generation this is one family historian.  I guess I am that chosen one.  It is a cool thing to be that person. And it would be sooooo much easier if I could travel back and get the scoop. :-)