Questions

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

Family Treeing

There are so many stories in my family tree. I'll never be able to research them all.
I've had family who've been in the US pre-Revolution.
I have immigrants who came to the country in just the last few generations.
Some were royalty.
Some were sharecroppers.
I've got ancestors from Scottish clan Wallace (Maybe "Uncle" William that might explain why I'm sometime a rebel).
I have a relative named Thankful (a good reminder).
I have both Friends and Mennonites in my family.
One of my ancestors was a founder of Brown University and one Penn State.

I think what really fascinates me is the story that goes with each person. I can never know the full extent of those relatives life, but I can piece together bits of them.

The great-grandmother, Sarah, who I just confirmed is biologically my ancestor (see Move Over Trixie Belden) was a single girl working in as a housekeeper.  My married great-grandfather worked for the railroad and traveled to her town as part of his job. He adopted their baby with his wife. Sarah went home and went to nursing school. She never married and lived with a single sister for the bulk of her adult life. When her sister died, she lived there alone.

And I can't help but wonder how giving up her daughter weighed on her. How it impacted the rest of her life. She inspired Carry Her Heart in a way. And the sequel, Hold Her Heart, was my love-of-HEAs attempt to give her a better ending.

Yes, for me, researching my family tree is a way to tell my own story and discover the stories of those who came before me.

Each of my family tree's branches came from somewhere else. Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, Germany. That means each branch has a person who gave up everything they knew, climbed on a boat and sailed to America. Some came when the country wasn't a country yet. They helped fight for our right to self-rule. Some came far later. But each one gave up everything for the chance at a fresh start—for a chance to build a better life for their children. As a mom, I admire their strength and optimism and hope that if needs be I could echo it. There's nothing—nothing—I wouldn't do for my kids. Nothing.

And I owe each of my ancestors a debt of thanks, because I love Erie, I love Pennsylvania and I love the US. I love my life. None of that would have been possible if they hadn't been brave enough to sail into the unknown and optimistic enough to believe they were sailing towards a better life for themselves and future generations.

Yes, for me, genealogy all comes down to the stories. Each new discovery brings a new branch and a new story to delve into.

Each of us makes choices and builds our own life, but I think it's important to remember we stand on the backs for those who came before us. We stand on the strength and optimism of those who came to this country looking for a better life.

I hope that I've done them all proud!

Holly

PS Check out my summer of Rom Com:

The Makeover

How to Catch a Groom

How to Hunt a Husband