Dear Miriam and Sarah,
Genealogy is sure a strange thing. In the course of researching your family tree, I have discovered these things called "heritage societies." These include the well-known Daughters of the American Revolution but also lesser known groups like the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Jamestowne Society, the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters, the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford, and (my personal favorite) the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches. I really hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft among our ancestors. I would join that society in a heartbeat!
But mostly I find myself wondering about these societies and about the purpose of doing genealogy. I have found in your tree ancestors that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony and no less than four(!) Ancient Planters of Virginia. Don't know what an ancient planter is? Go here: http://www.ancientplanters.org/about.htm . There are also men who fought in the Revolutionary War. So, technically we could apply to join many of these heritage societies. But, this is where the problem comes in. I really don't care about the Ancient Planters in your tree any more than I care about the Irish slate picker in Scranton, PA in 1890 or the Jewish merchants in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Its all good to me. It is all part of your glorious story. I read somewhere that there is such a thing as a prestigious family tree and it was suggested that this prestige, at least in American circles, derives from early colonial ancestors. I think that is weird. It is no accomplishment of mine that a few of my ancestors were Ancient Planters! I wasn't even there! I do genealogy because I love the stories of all my ancestors. I love seeing how they moved around, who they married, how they coped. I love thinking about why they left Pennsylvania for Nebraska or North Carolina for Kentucky or the Rhineland for California or, indeed, England for Virginia. I marvel at the hard decisions these people made and the struggle of it all. Everybody in your tree has a story. And all the stories are compelling and all the stories are part of the greater American story. I have been pursuing the story of your illegitimate great great grandmother with as much zeal as the story of any colonial planter.
I still hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft though. I'll keep digging.
Love,
Mom
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Bessie Colver--Your Ticket to the DAR
Dear Miriam and Sarah,
I always thought my family came from 19th century immigrants--you know the old Irish Potato Famine story with a little Scottish subplot thrown in. And, trust me, there is plenty of that. But I have discovered a few family lines that go way back to the fun-loving days of John Winthrop and John Smith. Take Bessie Colver, for example. Your great-great grandmother, Bessie, has some darn fine colonial roots. I'm not sure she knew it herself, but her lineage goes all the way back to Edward Colver (1600-1685), one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Not only that, in Bessie's line are also the Arnolds (a family that goes back to Colonial Rhode Island, was among the first pioneers of Kentucky, served in the Revolutionary War, and produced the most infamous traitor in our nation's history), the Noels (Huguenots that came to Virginia from the Netherlands in the middle of the 17th century), the Grays (who were among the original Colonial families of Jamestown), the Bone family (Scots who colonized Ulster--Northern Ireland-- in the early 17th century and came to Pennsylvania in the 1690s), and the Brownsons (early--1650s--landholders in Hartford, Connecticut).
So, don't forget that you are really Daughters of the American Revolution! I don't think I will be joining the DAR anytime soon. I am still stuck on what they did to Marian Anderson back in the 1930s. But when you turn 18, it's up to you.
Love,
Mom
I always thought my family came from 19th century immigrants--you know the old Irish Potato Famine story with a little Scottish subplot thrown in. And, trust me, there is plenty of that. But I have discovered a few family lines that go way back to the fun-loving days of John Winthrop and John Smith. Take Bessie Colver, for example. Your great-great grandmother, Bessie, has some darn fine colonial roots. I'm not sure she knew it herself, but her lineage goes all the way back to Edward Colver (1600-1685), one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Not only that, in Bessie's line are also the Arnolds (a family that goes back to Colonial Rhode Island, was among the first pioneers of Kentucky, served in the Revolutionary War, and produced the most infamous traitor in our nation's history), the Noels (Huguenots that came to Virginia from the Netherlands in the middle of the 17th century), the Grays (who were among the original Colonial families of Jamestown), the Bone family (Scots who colonized Ulster--Northern Ireland-- in the early 17th century and came to Pennsylvania in the 1690s), and the Brownsons (early--1650s--landholders in Hartford, Connecticut).
So, don't forget that you are really Daughters of the American Revolution! I don't think I will be joining the DAR anytime soon. I am still stuck on what they did to Marian Anderson back in the 1930s. But when you turn 18, it's up to you.
Love,
Mom
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Truth About Your Mom
Dear Miriam and Sarah,
I know you are being raised to think of yourselves as nice Jewish girls--and you are nice Jewish girls! But, I am afraid there is more to the story. You can blame me for that. You see, just like your mother, you are also nice Irish-Scottish-English-Danish-French girls. On your father's side you get names like Shapiro, White, Kuperstock, Michels, Weiler, Zinnamon, and Stein. On my side you get names like Fraser, Christensen, Sweeney, McGoldrick, Colver, Albert, Noel, and Miller.
What amazes me about you girls that is that in your family tree one can see so much history, so much human drama. Let's see. So far in my family tree project I have found direct ancestors who have witnessed or participated in the following: the founding of the Plymouth colony (the Colvers), the Huguenot migration to Virginia (the Noels), the Revolutionary War and the pioneer history of Kentucky (the Alberts), slave-holding (the Alberts), the early history of Iowa (the Colvers), the Irish Famine and subsequent migration to America (the McGoldricks and the Sweeneys), the Haymarket Riots in Chicago (the Frasers), the growth of the meat-packing industries of the mid-west (the Christensens), the migration of Russian and Polish Jews to New York between 1880 and 1920 (the Kuperstocks, the Shapiros and the Whites), and the migration of German Jews to Gold Rush California (the Michels). Wow. And there are still maternal lines I have not discovered. I will be telling you more about all of this in the coming months. Stay tuned!
Love,
Mom
I know you are being raised to think of yourselves as nice Jewish girls--and you are nice Jewish girls! But, I am afraid there is more to the story. You can blame me for that. You see, just like your mother, you are also nice Irish-Scottish-English-Danish-French girls. On your father's side you get names like Shapiro, White, Kuperstock, Michels, Weiler, Zinnamon, and Stein. On my side you get names like Fraser, Christensen, Sweeney, McGoldrick, Colver, Albert, Noel, and Miller.
What amazes me about you girls that is that in your family tree one can see so much history, so much human drama. Let's see. So far in my family tree project I have found direct ancestors who have witnessed or participated in the following: the founding of the Plymouth colony (the Colvers), the Huguenot migration to Virginia (the Noels), the Revolutionary War and the pioneer history of Kentucky (the Alberts), slave-holding (the Alberts), the early history of Iowa (the Colvers), the Irish Famine and subsequent migration to America (the McGoldricks and the Sweeneys), the Haymarket Riots in Chicago (the Frasers), the growth of the meat-packing industries of the mid-west (the Christensens), the migration of Russian and Polish Jews to New York between 1880 and 1920 (the Kuperstocks, the Shapiros and the Whites), and the migration of German Jews to Gold Rush California (the Michels). Wow. And there are still maternal lines I have not discovered. I will be telling you more about all of this in the coming months. Stay tuned!
Love,
Mom
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Truth About Your Dad
Dear Miriam and Sarah,
You know your dad as a fun, hard-working, loving father who likes to lay in his bed whenever possible. I know him as a wonderful husband and a good man who likes to lay in his bed whenever possible. But did you know that he could actually be the poster child for Bay Area Jewish History Month if there was such a thing. Let me explain:
Your father is a complex and fearsome combination of the two big strands of the Bay Area Jewish community--the German Jews and the Eastern European Jews. His paternal relations, the Michels, are the German Jews and they have been in San Francisco since the 1860s. On the maternal side are the Eastern European Jews, the Shapiros and Whites (or Witkoviches). They came to New York in 1890 and 1920--so during the Great Migration--and moved to San Francisco in the 1930s. The Michels, like most of the German Jews who came to the Bay Area in the middle of the 19th century, were fairly prosperous merchants. Many belonged to Temple Emanu-el, though they were never particularly observant. Mostly they were pretty assimilated and they enjoyed the pleasures of San Francisco life, including the delicious shellfish! On the other side, there was Rabbi Saul White, one of the great Conservative Rabbis of San Francisco. Saul was raised in a Polish shtetl and his mother Chava was an observant, Yiddish speaking woman. Now, Saul assimilated too in his own way, but you get my point.
Your father seems to have merged these two strands and come up with a pretty interesting and mostly workable Jewish identity.
On the one hand,
Love,
Mom
You know your dad as a fun, hard-working, loving father who likes to lay in his bed whenever possible. I know him as a wonderful husband and a good man who likes to lay in his bed whenever possible. But did you know that he could actually be the poster child for Bay Area Jewish History Month if there was such a thing. Let me explain:
Your father is a complex and fearsome combination of the two big strands of the Bay Area Jewish community--the German Jews and the Eastern European Jews. His paternal relations, the Michels, are the German Jews and they have been in San Francisco since the 1860s. On the maternal side are the Eastern European Jews, the Shapiros and Whites (or Witkoviches). They came to New York in 1890 and 1920--so during the Great Migration--and moved to San Francisco in the 1930s. The Michels, like most of the German Jews who came to the Bay Area in the middle of the 19th century, were fairly prosperous merchants. Many belonged to Temple Emanu-el, though they were never particularly observant. Mostly they were pretty assimilated and they enjoyed the pleasures of San Francisco life, including the delicious shellfish! On the other side, there was Rabbi Saul White, one of the great Conservative Rabbis of San Francisco. Saul was raised in a Polish shtetl and his mother Chava was an observant, Yiddish speaking woman. Now, Saul assimilated too in his own way, but you get my point.
Your father seems to have merged these two strands and come up with a pretty interesting and mostly workable Jewish identity.
On the one hand,
- He definitely has the aristocratic bearing of the German Jews
- He loves shellfish and has never been able to turn down a local Crab in Black Bean Sauce
- He takes his girls to services every weekend
- We keep a kosher home
- He objects vociferously to guitar playing on the Sabbath
Love,
Mom
And so it starts...
Dear Miriam and Sarah,
I was driving home from work the other day thinking about you girls and how crazy things are with all these budget cuts in the schools and the surreal state that California has gotten itself into and the whole mess over health care and the crazy meanness I see splashed all over the news and whether or not we will ever be able to send you to college. You get the point. You know your mom is a bit of a worrier. But then I began to ponder how essentially breathtaking the two of you are. Jeez, it just astounds me daily to think that you came from me and your Dad. And I began to think of all the forces that are going into shaping the lives of Miriam and Sarah--all the historical forces, social forces, economic forces. I know, that seems weird, but I am an historian and archivist and that is what I do when I am driving! It comforts me somehow to look at the big picture, to search for context and relationships. So, I found myself thinking about the context of Miriam and Sarah.
Actually, I think endlessly about context. I think I have some pathological need to contextualize my life. I remember reading biographies and memoirs when I was younger mainly because they somehow helped me gauge where my own life was going. I know, that seems crazy narcissistic. But what can I say? So, now I am contextualizing my daughters. It was inevitable. But now my contextualizing habit is worse than ever because I am doing the genealogy thing. You see, in the past few months, I have begun to create a family tree for you girls. I know you could not give a fooey (or whatever) about this right now. And maybe you will never give a fooey about it. That's OK because, just between you and me, I am really doing it for myself. Shocking, I know. I am really doing it to explain myself to myself. Somehow, I became an Irish-Scottish-English-Danish-possibly French-Jewish wife, mother, archivist and historian living in the Bay Area of California at the beginning of the 21st century. I really just want to know how the heck that happened. So, bear with me girls as I try to figure it out because it might tell you a lot about yourselves and all the amazing forces that built you. And who knows? In the process, maybe I will figure out the history of everything. I can try anyway.
Love,
Mom
I was driving home from work the other day thinking about you girls and how crazy things are with all these budget cuts in the schools and the surreal state that California has gotten itself into and the whole mess over health care and the crazy meanness I see splashed all over the news and whether or not we will ever be able to send you to college. You get the point. You know your mom is a bit of a worrier. But then I began to ponder how essentially breathtaking the two of you are. Jeez, it just astounds me daily to think that you came from me and your Dad. And I began to think of all the forces that are going into shaping the lives of Miriam and Sarah--all the historical forces, social forces, economic forces. I know, that seems weird, but I am an historian and archivist and that is what I do when I am driving! It comforts me somehow to look at the big picture, to search for context and relationships. So, I found myself thinking about the context of Miriam and Sarah.
Actually, I think endlessly about context. I think I have some pathological need to contextualize my life. I remember reading biographies and memoirs when I was younger mainly because they somehow helped me gauge where my own life was going. I know, that seems crazy narcissistic. But what can I say? So, now I am contextualizing my daughters. It was inevitable. But now my contextualizing habit is worse than ever because I am doing the genealogy thing. You see, in the past few months, I have begun to create a family tree for you girls. I know you could not give a fooey (or whatever) about this right now. And maybe you will never give a fooey about it. That's OK because, just between you and me, I am really doing it for myself. Shocking, I know. I am really doing it to explain myself to myself. Somehow, I became an Irish-Scottish-English-Danish-possibly French-Jewish wife, mother, archivist and historian living in the Bay Area of California at the beginning of the 21st century. I really just want to know how the heck that happened. So, bear with me girls as I try to figure it out because it might tell you a lot about yourselves and all the amazing forces that built you. And who knows? In the process, maybe I will figure out the history of everything. I can try anyway.
Love,
Mom
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