We attended a family reunion this weekend for my husband's father's side of the family. Their background couldn't be more different than mine -- large, Catholic family that immigrated from Italy around 1910 vs. my much smaller, Protestant family that showed up on America's shores in the 1630s.
None of that is relevant, but my husband were talking about how all the relatives at the reunion were descendants from his great-grandparents (the immigrants) who died in the mid 1970s. My husband is 61, as am I, so he knew his great-grandparents very well -- into his later high school years.
We have a niece who's expecting her first baby next week, and I was commenting to my husband how amazing it was to me that he will one day be able to tell this child about its great-great-great grandparents, because he actually knew them!
My own great-grandparents were born in the late 1850s/early 1860s -- the time of the Civil War -- so they were long gone before I came along. This branch of the family tends to have children a little later than what was the fashion at the time, so I never knew my great-grandparents, nor will my eventual grandchildren know theirs.
Still, I know a great deal about my great-grandmother, because she wrote her memoirs in the late 1950s and had them self-published for the family. My dad also wrote a memoir of sorts, which we have. My husband's family did none of those things, and here they had this remarkable immigration story of coming from a hilltop village in Italy that had only three families and moving to San Francisco, and no one seems to know much in the way of details. What a shame.
What is your family history like? Did you know your great-grandparents? Is there an immigration story? I encourage everyone to take the time to write down memories before it's too late.
I was adopted, so I don't have a ton of info, even after finding my birth family, still no info at all on who my birth father was; my birth mother took that info with her to the grave and I did not get to meet her before she passed. I only know who my grandparents were on her side, that's it. Since I did an Ancestry DNA test, if my birthfather took one, I would be notified if there was a 'close family' match on the paternal side. Till now, that has not happened.
On my adopted family's side, I only knew my grandparents on mom and dad's side, that's it.
Yes, many of those trees are a mess, and that's why I don't rely on other people's trees for information. I insist on at least two verifiable sources for most things on there, so I use the census and other legal documents.
My grandmother's father abandoned the family and changed his name so as to not be found, I assume. (It's no surprise, then, that my grandmother married a guy who also took off and disappeared.) Her eldest brother also disappeared and changed his identity because he was in an accident that killed someone, and he thought he might be blamed, or so the family story went.
On top of everything else, my grandmother only found out that her stepfather wasn't her real father when she had to get a birth certificate to work in the defense industry during WWII. Her mother had never told her who her real father was, and my grandmother was in her thirties!
My mother once said of her in-laws, "I never knew a group of people so utterly incapable of telling the truth," and she was right.
I knew my Maternal Grandmother. The man she was married to, I found out much later, that he was her second husband. Have no idea what happened to husband #1.
I know my mom had a sister. I think I met her 1 time when I was very young. And I do know my Aunt died 10 days after my mom died. My Grandmother was living with us at the time and I do know she got a call about the death of her other daughter. I have no idea who the call came from or if there were any other relatives.
My Paternal Grandmother I never met. She was married 2 times. Husband #1. died before my dad was born. (apparently he died in his 20's of myocarditis) The man my Paternal Grandmother married after that adopted my dad when he was about 2 or 3. I have no idea what happened to him. (my dad did tell me that his mom went through med school then decided that she wanted to be a lawyer and went through law school! To have those brains... )
My dad never talked about any of his family.
My mom died when I was pretty young so I was not into asking about family history.
My niece has dug up some info on Ancestry. The people that are "linked" to me are just people, I have no real connection to them. So my family tree is a stump. My sister and me.
My Moms side is who I can relate to but did not see a whole lot of. She was from another County. I knew my Moms siblings and my cousins. My grandmother and her mother died before I was born. My Moms Dad had left my grandmother before Mom was born so never knew him. Seemed to have forgotten that he had 5 children (one died in infancy) with my grandmother and doted on the 3 had by a women he never married. There is history there. A great-grandfather and a great-uncle started a newspaper together in the early part of the 20th century that was still in production in 2012. The funny thing is, my youngest worked at that paper till it closed and a descendent of my great-Uncle was still involved.
I love the old stories but my in-laws could care less. My BIL doesn't even know his grandmother's first name. Think that is sad.
On my dad's side was one David Williams, a Revolutionary War soldier who, along with two others, captured Maj. Andre, a British spy who was taking information on Washington's location to Benedict Arnold. Had my 5x great-grandfather not captured Maj. Andre, we'd all be celebrating our Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year!
As I said, my dad wrote his memories, which was actually an assignment for his church men's group one year. They were taking turns each week telling a little about themselves, and so he wrote down a few things about his upbringing. After he had his turn presenting, he just kept adding to it as things occurred to him. One of the last things he said to me before he died was, "Did I write down that I once danced with Keely Smith?" Yes, he did write it down, and it was one of the highlights of his teen years.
My dad's memoirs were more like a stream-of-consciousness essay rather than a chronological account of his life. He remembered being 11 years old and selling peanuts at a baseball game when they announced the attack on Pearl Harbor. He mentioned moving 11 times by the time he graduated from high school, and he remembered being the new kid (again) and getting an invitation to a birthday party. "Such kindness!" he wrote, and it made an enormous impression on him. He was the kindest person you'd ever want to meet in spite of having had a lousy upbringing thanks to a father who walked away when Dad was five, and a mother who barely managed to hold things together but had to farm her kids out to relatives to raise for a few years. His mantra was "Whenever I didn't know how to handle something, I'd ask myself what my parents would do -- then I'd do the opposite."
My grandson now has a relationship with his great grandfather, who is my father. My mother has dementia, and he and I visit her at her MC.
My grandson also has the privilege of hanging out with his great, great aunt and uncle. They are only 73 and 76. It warms my heart that he knows these precious people that I grew up knowing! Amazingness!
A distant cousin did our family’s tree, and we discovered that we are very distantly related to Walt Whitman! 😀😀
I found a half-sister (from my father's side) through an Ancestry.com search my neighbor did on my behalf. I never knew my father growing up and my mom didn't offer many details. Also found out that that same family side could be traced back to 1500s England thanks to a search done and shared by another ancestry.com member. So, the family legend about "coming right off the Mayflower" was actually true. I did a DNA test and found that I have inherited 20% indigenous American (and this aligns with coming to America early on). The other 50% is European (my mom's side is Italian, Grandparents "right off the boat" at Ellis Island). But I want to do a DNA test on my mom because almost no one is 100% of anything. She is half Sicilian, which means she could have North African DNA ;-)
My husband is "100%" Swedish heritage. His brother did his own DNA test and inherited 73% Swedish, but also Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian (which makes sense since those are neighboring countries directly across the sea and the Vikings traveled and conquered far and afield).
Neither my husband nor I ever knew our great grandparents (and even if we did, they didn't speak any English). My mom's mother had her at 40 and my mom had me at 30, so too many years in between. But I have seen a newspaper clipping a relative showed me of 5 generations of women in one picture (because back in the day women got married and started families at much younger ages, like 14, 15). I think the stories are all fascinating, but maybe only because I'm closer to my Italian grandparent's actual immigration experience than my kids or their kids will ever be, and we were more closely knit.
There was a time I felt I should write down some of the stories that would bring the information in the trees to life but the next generations have showed zero interest, and once my mom became blind she couldn't help with the pictures any more. Maybe I'll tackle it some day.
I have been looking for a new project.. A'ha! Back to the tree!
My DH's side had puritans that set sail for the New Land (? Boston) - not 1630 (wow) I will have to check the dates. Also had Irish runaways. Mine is a mixed bag, mostly UK miners but Italian too.
Sadly I did not get to meet any Great-Grandparents myself, but told some stories & have a few photos.
I have been looking for a new project.. A'ha! Back to the tree!
My DH's side had puritans that set sail for the New Land (? Boston) - not 1630 (wow) I will have to check the dates. Also had Irish runaways. Mine is a mixed bag, mostly UK miners but Italian too.
Sadly I did not get to meet any Great-Grandparents myself, but told some stories & have a few photos.