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| My great-grandfather |
I've been playing with my family tree for years. I work on it, take some time off, then go back and work some more. When I started, there were huge branches that were missing—phantom branches—but over the years I've found most of them. One eluded me. Her name was Sarah.
She gave her daughter—my grandmother—up for adoption at birth. The family story was my grandmother's adoptive father was in actuality her birth father. The story I heard was that he had an affair, then he and his wife adopted the child, my grandmother.
My grandmother sent for her original birth certificate in the 70's. The name listed as the father wasn't my great-grandfather's name, but it was a variation. And the mother's name was listed—Sarah. I did a search and found two Sarah's listed with the same last name. Both were from small towns not far from where my grandmother was born. Both were of an age. But one ended up being a dead end. She married and had a son a few months before my grandmother was born. That left one.
I listed that Sarah on my tree, but she was a question mark. I thought there was a good chance it was her, but I couldn't be sure.
So I kept digging. Sarah was a maid in a big city. My g. grandfather was a railroad engineer who traveled to that city. So that made sense. The census after my grandmother was born, Sarah had moved back to her hometown. I found records that she went back to school and became a nurse. She lived with her family. Her brother and one sister got married. Sarah then moved in with another unmarried sister. They lived together until her sister died. Then Sarah lived alone. If this was my Sarah, I wondered if she thought about my grandmother. I wondered if she had a happy life. I wondered...
When my grandmother sent for that original birth certificate, Sarah was still alive and lived within driving distance. My grandmother never said a word about this to any of us, so I don't know if she ever went to meet Sarah, but it didn't seem likely to me. I talked to one of my grandmother's good friends, and she didn't think she had either. Still, I'd like to think she did, even if I suspect she didn't.
I did some more research and I traced Sarah's family back to Germany. I found a few newspaper articles that mentioned her.
But I still didn't know if she was MY Sarah.
That's where I left off. I was pretty sure Sarah was my great-grandmother, but I couldn't be sure. And while I still am not positive, I came closer to it lately. I did one of those DNA tests. A bunch of new names popped up on my relative list recently and I started searching for Sarah's fairly unique last name. And I've found a few matches that only have that one common surname. No one I can precisely match to Sarah's family, but the last name and in some cases the cities at a specific time match.
It's not quite proof, but I'm closer to feeling confident that Sarah is My Sarah. Other surnames from her family tree are matching in my DNA for distant cousins. That makes sense.
And to add to my genealogy glee, I started getting a lot of DNA matches to that dog of a g. grandfather. So I feel confident that much of the story is true.
I write about family in so many of my books. My broken family tree definitely plays a part in my fiction. I try to imagine how Sarah felt, giving up her child and that became part of
Carry Her Heart. And I imagined that my grandmother did go meet Sarah (
even though I don't think she did) and that became the sequel,
Hold Her Heart.
I've talked before about how my real life influences my fiction. I like to think Sarah would like knowing that she's been found. That her child had a good life. That she had a great-granddaughter who found her and won't let her be lost again. And I like to think she appreciates she directly influenced my books.
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One of my favorite finds,
a southern family pic. |
I tell Himself that his family tree is boring. His ancestors got married, had a family and stayed together until they died. My family tree is not that. Almost every branch has breaks. There were some phantom branches. I knew there was someone there but it took me a while to find out who. Sarah was a phantom branch, but now, she's home.
Having so little of my family history has made me treasure each piece I find. When I started playing the my ancestry, I had a small family, but over the years, it's expanded. At first, I was a very northern girl. But as I've found my roots, I've found a ton of them down south in the Appalachian mountains. And stories.
Oh, the stories. Relatives in politics. Sharecroppers. One Irish doctor who married a titled English girl then took her to America. They lived outside DC and the house he built her is still there. I treasure each new branch I find. And I'm thrilled I found Sarah...well, probably found Sarah.
I'll keep working on her. But for now, she's mine.
Holly
PS.
Check out 2018's releases!!
(And keep an eye out for 2019's! There are a bunch!):
I've talked before about why I write stories of different lengths. For me, short stories are a country video—they can pack a wallop quickly. Novellas are a made for tv movie. There's more meat on the bone, but (once you factor commercials in) in under and hour and a half, they tell a bigger story. Finally, novels are full on, go to the movies, get your bucket of popcorn and settle in sort of movies. I tell all three because I love all three. My very first romance sales were short stories. And for me there's a sense of coming home.
