1:49 p.m. - 2005-11-11
genealogy
Friday, November 11, 2005
"We are all sprung from woman, although we are unlike in many things. You are as you were made, and as you were made you can remain. We are just as we were made by the Great Spirit, and you cannot change us, then why should children of one mother and one father quarrel? Why should one try to cheat the other? I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do"
Quote of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians
Although this seems to me to talk about all of mankind in our world and it certainly has a huge amount of common sense; it can also be interpreted to fit the individual family.
That brings me to my topic for today. Genealogy.
I have a few family members who are busily trying to discover the past history of the various lines of my family. One, who is my second cousin, Gina, has been asking me if I have any information about my grandmother - who was the step sister of her grandmother. I did know that I had a small journal that my mother had kept which belonged to my grandmother. I had seen this little raggedy book most of my life. I had looked at it but in truth, I thought the poems were written by my own mother. I realized after my mother's death, that some of the dates of the poems were before my own mother was born! Their handwriting was astonishingly alike. So, I copied that little book. My husband was able to scan some old, dark, very small pictures and make them larger so I was able to see the facial features of my mother as a child and my grandmother. My uncle Jack had copied some old papers too and filled in a few of the blanks. Gina is full of information based on her grandmother's discussions with her. Apparently Great Aunt Lucille was the keeper of a lot of information and fortunately she shared much of it with Gina. The two of us have been trying to locate a portion of a journal my grandmother kept. Uncle Jack said he got it from my mother and he did copy it. We have the copy but we wanted to read it for ourselves. Unfortunately, I have never seen this diary.
Since the time my mother has passed away, I have all her old papers but I can not locate it. I don't know if she threw it out when she was terminally ill in confusion or if when we moved her out of her house; it was thrown out. And, there is the possibility that Uncle Jack still has it and forgot.
Anyway, because we were looking for more information, I contacted the last remaining sibling of my mother, my Aunt Kathy. She didn't remember much about her mother because Grandmother died in 1945 and Aunt Kathy was only about 7 years old. She did, however, have other information which she is sharing with Gina and I. The e-mails and mailing of packages of photos, old letters and bits and pieces of the story have been flying back and forth for about 2 weeks now. It really is exciting as some pieces fall into place. We are also discovering family illnesses which are helpful in caring for ourselves and our children.
I also contacted my other sister-who-shall-remain-nameless. She withdrew from our family about 10 years ago. I sent her an e-mail asking if she had any information or papers about our grandmother. I didn't think she did but at least she responded and now SHE is interested in the story of our family. Maybe she will become part of the family again...at least with me. She is the next oldest in our family so the two of us were closer than my other two sisters. Since she has withdrawn from the family, my other two sisters and I are extremely close as we feel we are the only remaining girls in our immediate family.
Some of the family story has already been written about by me during some entries this past summer. I used the information I had at the time and then used my imagination. You can go back to read if you wish. When I started writing it as a possible book, I was using fake names. After I had written a couple entries, my sisters said I should use the real names. You might get confused but the real names are as follows.
Maternal Grandmother Josephine , mother Patricia Jean, Her siblings, Bette, Thomas, William, Michael, Kathy. Jimmie and Jack.
Paternal Grandmother Leonetta , father Donald , my siblings, Virginia, Bonnie, half-sister, Mary. Step father: Raymond
This brings me to my final thought. Based on the quote from Chief Joseph, I wish we would all try to re-connect with our families, learn the stories before it is too late, make up with those we have had problems with and try to get along during this holiday season.
What secrets do your families have?
