I love asking questions. Even more than that, I love finding answers. The Minions and I play a game in the morning...ask a question. Sometimes it's, "What's the biggest snake in the world?" (The reticulated python is the longest...we went with that.) Sometimes we go on long questiony journeys, one question leading to another. Sasquatch, the Wright Brothers, the Gold Rush...
I've found two distinct branches in my family tree that makes me wonder if my love of questions is genetic. One line is Mennonite. They came here from Switzerland and I can find their names in church lists for a couple centuries.
The other line is Quaker. I'm still tracing them back, but so far, I've found a few into the 1700's.
I love that they all questioned the hierarchy and forged their own paths.
Then they stopped. Both lines by the mid-eighteen hundreds were no longer practicing their breakout faiths. Did each generation keep asking questions until they finally answered them? Or did they keep asking questions and never found answers and simply turned away, looking for answers in another direction? It's been fascinating research.
So many things about my family tree makes me ask questions. Trying to understand the paths that brought my people here. The Swiss/German branch seemed to come for religious liberty. I can imagine their stories. One relative was an Irish doctor who married a titled English lady and they both moved here. I can imagine their story as well. But some of them are big...well, questions. Following their paper trail will never give me all the answers to my questions, so I'm left with imagining my own.
Questions sometimes lead to concrete answers. Sometimes they lead to guesses and stories. If questioning is genetic, maybe I owe my writing career to good genes. I am a shirttail relative to Emily Dickenson. I like to think the few genetic strands we share help inspire me to find the beauty of words.
Questions. I think having a bunch of things I'm asking is a great way to start a year. I'm just a small branch on my giant family tree. I wrote a blog not long ago about mtDNA, where I imagined the long line of women I come from. I doubt I'll find all the answers this year, but I'm hoping I find some! And I suspect anything I discover will lead to more questions.
Wishing you a new year filled with questions...and answers.
Holly
PS Looking for something to read this new year?
Looking for something to read in 2023? Check out:
Just One Thing is for sale this month on Amazon!
If you've followed my renovating, addition at the cottage, this book is set there in my mind!
Surprises in All Sizes anthology.
One of my Hometown Hearts stories is included!
Signs of the Times
Available for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
Book #2 comes out in February!
By Design takes a the marriage of convenience trope and...well, has a bit of fun with it.
Chances
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Apple Books
A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nook
JV here! I am also kind of obsessed with tracing my genealogy. Through my father's moth,er's mother, I am related somehow to William Clark, the explorer. However, records are scarce from that time period, so I can't find out if he's a direct ancestor or a many times great uncle. I've found that many stories I assumed were just family folklore were actually true. For example, all my life I've heard about relatives with really weird rhyming names in my family. Having never met any of those people, I always thought, "Yeah, sure," but through actual records I have now found some of them. For example, I found Clarissa Fairicy Paradine Alzibeth Denham (who was called ... wait for it! ... Paradine). Also, keep in mind that these people lived in a small rural community where things are pronounced differently (Clarissa = Clarissy, like the city Rhoda is pronounced Rody and my aunt whose first name was Cova was pronounced Covy). Several members of the family from that line had truly odd names. Good luck tracking down your relatives. It gives you a very odd feeling when you find facts about people who died so long ago, almost as if you suddently know them. Sometimes what you find out is very cool; sometimes, not so much, like what I discovered today, though I can't be absolutely sure the man listed is my great grandfather. I will have to research further, but I have a feeling it probably is the same man.
ReplyDeleteJV, I love your rhyming named relatives! That's awesome! We have a lot of odd names here, but what's even more fascinating is the many George Washington Last Name. I thought they just liked the name, but they're in the branch that gave GW his horse, so now it makes perfect sense. I can't help but wonder if the more recent GW's knew that story, or if they simply remembered that there were other GW's in the family.
DeleteEvery time I think I've answered something, I find more questions.
I hope you find out more about your ggrandfather! I've got one mystery line I'm still trying to figure out!