LJI Second Chance: The Garden Path

[alycewilson]

This is my entry for Second Chance Idol (http://www.therealljidol.dreamwidth.org). This week we get an open topic, meaning we can write about anything. I'll update later when there is a voting link to share.

The Ardennes region of France, a bright green valley with clear-running stream and tiny white buildings.

The Garden Path
(for my mother's mother's mothers)

I am the daughter of Vivian,
who was the daughter of Ella,
who was the daughter of Senora,
who was the daughter of Hannah,
who was the daughter of Cathrina,
who was the daughter of Susanna,
who was the daughter of Anna Margaretha,
who was the daughter of Anna Catherina,
who was the daughter of Veronica,
who was the daughter of Susanna,
who was the daughter of Susannah,
who was the daughter of Rachel,
who was the daughter of Jeanne,
who was the daughter of Jeanne.

And in this way, I unravel our path:
from my hometown in Central Pennsylvania
back through Pennsylvania Coal Country
to Philadelphia
by way of New York City
through The Netherlands
to the Champagne-Ardenne region of France.

My father believes I have a "French nose,"
perhaps a mitochrondrial trait, if I am,
indeed, descended from these French
Huguenots, whose ancient roots
sprung from fertile earth in Picardy,
north of Paris. That green place
birthed Pierre Cresson, gardener
to the Prince of Orange, known as
Pierre le Gardinier. From Picardy, perhaps,
the seed of my mother's green thumb,
her love of botany: documented in the bright
pastels she left behind.

I trace back my matrilineal names:
from me, a Wilson,
daughter of a Starr,
daughter of a Hinkle,
daughter of a Hampton,
daughter of a Yoder,
daughter of a Trautman,
daughter of a Pfeiffer,
daughter of a Muller,
daughter of a Warner,
daughter of a Cassell,
daughter of a DeLaPlaine,
daughter of a Cresson,
daughter of a Clauss,
daughter of a Famelar,
daughter of a Colle.
If the work of my supposed cousins
holds, I am lucky to connect
these points along a circuitous path, from
my 2019 all the way to 1572. Now,
I unfold this rough map, sketched
by others, and examine all stopping points.
So far, success: two certain links
between Hannah and Cathrina,
my second and third great-grandmothers.
Now to suss out Susannah. With that
established, the pathway will root
in records and documents, thanks to
Pierre Le Gardinier.

As I weed the path from Cathrina
to Susannah, I wonder what we share.
The way we bite our lips in thought?
Our clear-eyed ability
to evaluate those around us? Powers
of perception, elevated or earthly?
My mother's bright blue eyes,
my Nana's hazel laughter,
great-grandmother's stoic stare,
great-great-grandmother's poise.
So different, all of them, but I see
the thread unwinding. I long
to tell our stories, the oft-forgotten
others of history books. From "wife of"
to mother, grandmother, matriarch.

My matrilineal line: me; my mother, Vivian Starr; my Nana, Ella Hinkle; my great-grandmother, Senora Hampton; and my 2x great-grandmother, Hannah Yoder

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

I love this! I love family history.

[alycewilson]

I know! I have a feeling if you and I ever got together for coffee, we would spend the whole time swapping family tales we've uncovered.

[bsgsix]

The power of women is STRONG in this piece. I love that - that you can honor all ancestors but place that special emphasis on the women who brought you to where you are. This is very well done.

[alycewilson]

Thank you! So often we only have knowledge of the men, and it was very important to my mom to learn more about her female relatives. In fact, I have a book she owned about discovering your female ancestors, so I know how lucky we are if, indeed, we can truly go back this far. I don't like to rely just on other people's family trees, but aside for a couple relationships I'm trying to establish closer to my generation, it's a surprisingly well-documented family. As anyone with European ancestors will tell you, if you can link yourself, even tangentially, to nobility, your search becomes much easier.

[bsgsix]

I think that's amazing. And I'm finding that, as I get older and have a child who is (inevitably) getting older, I'd like to know more about my ancestry. But I don't know where to begin. I have information on my mother and grandmother, but when it comes to my birth father? All I know is his full legal name and that he is from Colombia. Where do I begin? I might be able to trace the wonderful people from my mother's side (who are, I believe, Welsh and Swedish), but sadly, all the great and strong women on my father's side? They may be lost forever. Or have no records. I'm so uncertain! But I would like to know, and I can see why this is not only fascinating, but also utterly important, to you.

[alycewilson]

Is there anybody else from your father's family that you could talk to, who might be able to fill in more gaps? If not, it does get trickier but is not necessarily impossible. You may be able to find records pertaining to both parents -- such as a marriage license or your own birth certificate application -- that would tell you more.

If you were really interested, you could get a trial membership at Ancestry.com, put in the information you know and start searching. Or, if you don't to pay anything, there is a crowdsourced family tree project called FamilySearch.org. There is one unique page for each person there, but information on living individuals is only visible to the people who create or edit that information. Importantly, you can search for records there, for free, and it tends to be a slightly wider selection than is typically available at Ancestry. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormon church), which runs FamilySearch.org and also owns Ancestry, has family history centers all over the country where you can go and get in-person help, as well. Decades ago, when my paternal grandmother was researching our family, she got a lot of help from them, as evidenced by correspondence she kept from her conversations with them and with other genealogists.

A simple search revealed this page as a possible starting point for you:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Colombia_Genealogy

There are also specific genealogical organizations out there who can assist with specialized searches.

[bsgsix]

OK, I definitely need to look into all of this. Unfortunately, I have no connection with anyone on my paternal side. My mom has cut that thread and I don't even have pictures, let alone names besides that of my birth father. I'll have to do some digging somehow. Someone somewhere has to know... well, something, I'd hope!

Thank you for all the links!

[alycewilson]

I had a similar situation looking into my husband's maternal side, as his mother's parents had divorced when she was young. But I talked to her and got enough to start with. It took a couple years, with lots of breaks when I ran into dead ends and couldn't think how to proceed, but I was eventually able to trace them all the way back to England and Germany!

[alycewilson]

One more idea. If you're willing to do a DNA test, that can help you identify cousins who share DNA, and from that you might be able to triangulate more about his family. I used Ancestry DNA, because then it links to my tree, which the computer cross-checks against my DNA matches to find common ancestors. My brother used 23andMe, and I know that also returns people who share DNA. However, there are no associated family trees so you would have to contact individuals personally to ask them for that information.

[bsgsix]

I think that's the route I'm going to take for both James and for myself (genetic testing, anyhow; given all my AI conditions, I've already spoken about seeing a geneticist for both of us, just in case something happens to me soon and I don't find out in time). But a DNA test will be something I can do tomorrow. I don't mind contacting people if I can find out things about my father's side. That's something important. There's just so much to know. I should get on that and order a test. :)

[alycewilson]

Definitely! I'm glad you're open to it, because I've made so many connections that way. People with a passion for genealogy tend to be very helpful, if there's any information they can provide. After my mother died, I felt like it reopened my connection to that side of the family, which had been so abruptly shut.

I also believe there are ways to take your results from one test and upload them onto another site to make the analysis go further. However, I haven't tried to do that.

When talking to family members, listen to everything, especially anything that's unusual or stands out. I was able to figure out an entire branch of my husband's maternal family because of a specific family story that told me that they'd been descended from a family of doctors in a small Connecticut town. Fortunately, back in the early 1800s, most towns only had one doctor!

On my dad's side, his biological grandfather had never married his grandmother, and in fact, she'd continued using her late husband's name (Wilson). I was able to identify my biological great-grandfather, George W. Eutsler, from two facts: his unusual last name and his profession, which was running a lumber mill.

So take notes of anything they tell you. That unique information will help.

[dmousey]

This is really cool. Over five hundred years of history. You should write a book about your female ancestors Alyce, and make sure you place yourself in there too. You are a strong and caring woman as I imagine they were. ✌⛄❄🐭🐁🎀

[alycewilson]

Thank you so much. I've thought about it. Let's see what I uncover. At the very least, I plan to write up my findings for my family, so that the information I gather will be easy for them to sort through. :)

[bellatrix_lestrange]

I love family history too! This is beautiful and so interesting :D

[alycewilson]

Thank you! I know my mom would be so fascinated. She always talked about her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and I know she wanted to know more.

[bellatrix_lestrange]

It really is fascinating finding out more about where you came from. Honestly I could spend entire days on this stuff. I've been able to trace a lot on my father's side due to some of our ancestors being royals so there are lots of records, and recently one of my best friends and I found out we are both related very distantly through one of those ancestors! We're both still shocked and (happily) amazed by it!

I know my mom would be so fascinated. She always talked about her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and I know she wanted to know more. <3 My mum's sister and brother started tracing their family history a few years before my maternal grandma passed away and she was always so intrigued by everything they would find and sometimes even cried when they would find old photos and such. It was such a touching thing to see her reactions. I'm sure your mum would be thrilled and enthralled by it all as well <3

[alycewilson]

That is so great to hear about the work that you've been doing. It is said that, if you trace your family back to nobility, you're pretty much done. From that, you can go back to the 1200s or further! Which royals?

The closest I've gotten to royalty is that my paternal grandmother's family was supposed descended from William the Marshall, who was a knight in service of Henry II. However, looking through my grandmother's genealogical research, I have not yet found the direct connection. It might have been a family story. Maybe that can be my next task, after the matrilineal line!

[bellatrix_lestrange]

It is said that, if you trace your family back to nobility, you're pretty much done. It's definitely made it quite easy to find records!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_II_of_Sicily is one of my ancestors and my friend and I are related via his first cousin once removed, : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Tracy (Henry II was his first cousin once removed!)

I have not yet found the direct connection. It might have been a family story. Maybe that can be my next task, after the matrilineal line! :D
It's amazing to think that if you could find the connection, we could also be distantly related. This stuff is seriously just fascinating to me. I've always been into history in general and could spend my entire researching things!

[alycewilson]

That is very cool! With the interconnections between the nobility, we may indeed be very distantly related, if I can prove the connection to William the Marshall.

LIke you, I love history but have always been more interested in the cultural side of it: how people lived. I have learned so much through my research about the colonization of the United States and the various reasons that my ancestors came here.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

And you even look alike! Clever montage.

[static_abyss]

I really what you did with your entry this week. It's amazing to see all your history laid out. I especially love the paths your poem takes all the way through your family line. Well done!

[halfshellvenus]

Wow-- you really have uncovered a lot of history along your mother's side of the family! That is a lot of generations-- and yes, it is typically harder to trace once you go back into Europe and whatever record-keeping may or may not have existed in earlier times.

[rayaso]

Turning family history into a poem was a fascinating idea, and you did a great job with it. The rhythm in the lists of names is strong.

[babydramatic_1950]

This is wonderful! What details you uncovered! I don't know much about my family. I could probably find out more about my mother's parents. Her father came from Austria Hungary and met my grandmother who was part of a community of Jews in Philadelphia. (They then came to New York in 1919). I know that my father's mother was a movie actress (played tiny roles including one in Harvey). I saw his birth certificate. His last name was spelled "McLean" but he always spelled it "MacLean". My mother told me that what was on the birth certificate was wrong. The LDS headquarters is on my corner.

[murielle]

This is absolutely wonderful! I'm turning a little green (with envy) at your knowledge of your ancestors. Such a rich heritage. And so beautifully expressed! And the artwork that brings it alive. Excellent entry, Alyce! Excellent!

[song_of_thea]

What a long and winding path your lineage takes. How lovely to gain insight of your past.

I like the use of poetry in this piece.

[megatronix]

That's so interesting to have tracked back your family's history that far! I am more and more interested in this stuff lately, and I may dive deeper soon. Discovering my family tree stuff recently was really fun. Thank goodness my grandmother wrote so much down!

[reidharriscooper]

This was truly fascinating. I tried that free site you mentioned in comments, but unfortunately I actually don't have the information they need to even try to create a search. Although I am iffy by the fact that it seems very focused on pushing the ownership.

None of that has anything to do with the work here which was very well done and a joy to read.

[flipflop_diva]

I love family histories! They are so interesting! (I just got one of those Ancestry DNA kits so I can find out a little bit more about myself.) I really love that you know so much about yours! That's very cool!

[kehlen.livejournal.com]

This is so cool that someone know more than the three generations before them, like most of us do.

[codenamewanderlust]

this is great!

I know so little of my family history, when I was in highschool I was assigned a family genealogy protect and wrote a story about how I was a faerie changeling who was "switched" and wrote the lineage of my "true" family :D

Luckily I had a cool teacher who gave me a passing grade because I had understood the spirit of the assignment even if my great great great great great... grandparents probably weren't tuatha de danann/sidhe