Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Impact

This month's post is on what has impacted me recently.  Its been a crazy couple of months.  And things have happened that have led me to introspection.  A death in the family, reacquainting myself with family members and trying to understand and keep in touch with them.
Yin yang moon

I had a birthday.  56 this year; not a major milestone.  I have met people this year who asked me about my age, then said "REALLY, you are that old? And you have a 9 year old?  How did that happen?"  It makes me laugh.  Most days.  My son who is 9; my daughter who is 19.  They keep me young at heart.  Stages and phases, circles and cycles (as Willie Nelson would say).




And with this, was thoughts of family.  Immediate family, extended family, past family, my circle of friends who are close and who are sister-like, my farmer's market group.  I looked at the old slides my father took, going back to the 40's while I made copies of them for my sister and a nephew.
My mother and I, about 1961

Then, an offer came from Ancestry.com to have a free 14 day trial.  Why not, I said to myself.  The new year is starting, my business is at a slow point.  So, I joined.

Funny thing about my family.  My husband can trace his roots back to 1648, when the first "Hubbell" came across the Atlantic.  My side, it stopped, for all intensive purposes, at my grandparents.  I have pictures in boxes "George Moses, sitting in the place he was born".  But WHERE WAS THAT????

I don't know what I hoped to find, but I stared, fascinated, at an on-line copy of my grandfather's draft card. The Bell/Heichelbeck (Heichelbech?) side went further and further back.....  parents who begat children.....the same names......Susan, John, Joseph, Ralph.....over and over....  I traced one set to Germany and France.
Mamie (my paternal grandmother), my Aunt Rosie, and my Greatgrandmother Addie....all on my father's side
My paternal grandfather, Pop
 Then, the other side, the Syrian side.  The family I look like.  "You are just like your grandmother" my mother would say when I picked/dried herbs.  I am short and have the olive skin in summer, the syrian nose.




There was a story that my grandmother entered this country illegally.  There was something intriguing about that story.  A young woman, maybe 13, maybe 18 (depending on which records you want to believe) entering this country on her own.  I could not find where any of my great grand parents came into this country from the Syrian side.  I found where they recorded the people living on my grandparents farm after they bought it.  Census forms, listing names and ages of the children (my mother and aunt and uncles)... a boarder on the farm.....then my Great Uncle Charlie appears on one form living on the farm when he was in his late 20's.  My grandmother had to report on a census that she did not read or write English, and came here in 1913, from where I don't know.  My grandfather reports his home town is Bteghrine   Bits and pieces, come together.

I still have no idea about that side of the family....but the research has made me dream (literally) about the middle east, and wonder about my past, still more.  Will I ever know?  Can I stand some day where my grandparents walked, or will the war there go on forever?

But, the family research has made me think about the past, about who I am.  Who will my children grow up to be.  And what do I want to introduce them to in those family/ethic traditions.  To fulfill a piece of this, I need to go to Austin.....Today.  To the Phoenician Bakery and Deli.  Time to buy me some imported olive oil, eat olives and get some halawa......and let my son sample the olives, too.

And, lets see what has impacted others in our group:



Kathleen Krucoff ~ http://wp.me/pA5jX-O5



6 comments:

  1. lovely and introspective post.
    enjoy the olives!!

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    1. we decided on some called "Lebanses black".....yum!

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  2. Tracing family lines back is so fascinating.

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  3. Isn't is fascinating to look at the old photos, to connect with family through the sepia images?
    I recently put together a scrapbook/photo album with old photos given to me by my grandfather. When I was through, I felt I KNEW the people in the photos.

    Who knows where your research will lead? (Maybe a trip to the middle East?)

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    1. In the box of photos I have, there is no name for about half the people....obviously relative, you can see the resemblance, but no names.

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