Learned a bit about my dad’s side of the family. Turns out that Swope and Swopes are, surprisingly, related… (Also Schwab, Swab… same name, which came from the region – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabia ) So, this is a chunk of my family history…

http://books.google.com/books?id=NkEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA494&lpg=PA494#v=onepage&q&f=false

Not sure where I branch off from, but we do know that we’re among the original settlers of pennsylvania, we settled lancaster county where the amish now live, then moved on to monroe county, west virginia, where there’s a smallish mountain named swope’s knob…

my dad’s mom’s side has a convicted witch, which is kinda neat. She was executed, so that kinda sucks for her.

http://members.tripod.com/rfox52/LydiaGilbert.htm

According to this artist’s conception, apparently she could shoot lighting out of her hands… how badass is that?

http://womenhistory.blogspot.com/2008/02/lydia-gilbert.html