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Shaking the Family Tree (standard:non fiction, 1243 words) | |||
Author: Lou Hill | Added: Apr 22 2002 | Views/Reads: 3301/2367 | Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes) |
Searching for ancestors unearths some interesting stories. | |||
Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story compared to as recently as ten years ago when everything was pretty much done by on-site research or through the mail, it is still a "detective job" to piece together information, to be able to go to the right source to follow up on a clue garnered from a census record or information chiseled on a gravestone in an old cemetery. Perhaps I am a frustrated Sherlock Holmes. I certainly get a big kick out of rooting an elusive ancestor out of the mists of time by using my deductive powers. I suppose that, like most people, I would love to find a famous ancestor in my family tree. So far, no such luck. I have found a four times great-grandfather who was a Minuteman in the Revolutionary war. My twenty five times great grandfather, Guido de Janes, was given an estate in Essex, England by King Henry II. His grandson, Geoffry de Janes traveled to the Holy Land on three separate crusades. I have several relatives who served in various local and state offices here in Vermont. There are no well-known names but I am still looking. I sometimes find information that amuses me and often find things that sadden me as well. There have been several hastily arranged marriages; this based on the wedding date and the birth date of the first child. I have one relative who was described in "The History of South Hero" as "an eccentric genius, but more, he was a rough, untamed backwoodsman." Another distant cousin, born on the 4th of July 1776, was named Liberty. My Great-Great Grandfather Austin was the only one of five children to live beyond the age of three. Only one of my Great-grandmother Austin's five siblings lived to maturity. The indomitable spirit of some of my early ancestors amazes me. One of my French-Canadian ancestors, Antoine Emery, had eleven children by his first wife. All of them died at birth or shortly thereafter. When his wife died, he remarried, choosing a woman half his age. She produced nine children, all of whom lived. One of them was my six times great-grandmother, Catherine Emery. Perhaps most amazing is the story of my six times Great-Grandparents, Benjamin and Hannah Janes. On May 13, 1704, Indians attacked Hannah and her three children at their home in Northfield, Mass. The three children were killed. Hannah was scalped and left for dead. Fortunately she recovered from her wounds and bore Benjamin six more children, including my direct ancestor, Seth Janes. As I consider the question of why I search through old records and books trying to put another twig on the tree, I find myself coming to this conclusion. History tells me who I am and it also tells me why I am what I am as well. Enosburg VT July, 1994 Tweet
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Lou Hill has 24 active stories on this site. Profile for Lou Hill, incl. all stories Email: louhill1@juno.com |