Well, I suppose the best place to begin is the beginning. But which beginning do I begin at? It seems as though there is so much to tell and yet no good place to begin. Perhaps I should begin with the spark that inspired this blog.
I recently attended a reading by Stephanie Elizondo-Griest. She spoke a lot about finding your roots, and returning to the Motherland. Her speaking and her writing have once again set aflame my thoughts of my ancestry. How can I visit the Motherland when I don't know where that is?
I don't know much about my lineage on either side of my family. I know that my father's side of the family is Czech. My mother always claimed to be Irish, but I'm a little skeptical of that. I think it might be closer to Britain. Although, how can I trace my mother's lineage, when all of the surnames are from males? It is impossible to trace from woman to woman to woman very far back. I believe that this is one reason I will choose to retain my last name (via hyphenation) if I get married. I want future generations to be able to get one step further in tracing the female members of the tree.
So that is how it all began, or got rekindled. Now, with new inspiration and new vehicles such as this blog and the personal academic essay that I have to write for my class on "The Personal Essay" I hope to explore and maybe even write my own history and ancestry.
3 comments:
This is of great interest to me. All I know about my mother's family is that my grandfather was German and my grandmother was Irish. I know even less about my father's family, but I assume (based on what my grandmother has told me) that they were English. I wish I had the means to trace back my lineage, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. Good luck with your search!
Exploring more about your family's lineage would be a great blogging idea. You could talk about what you have found, etc. (If that is something that you wanted to do because it would require research - do I smell a project in the works???)
I've finally succeeded in posting to Lacie's blog. She made some changes that I think worked for us. Yes, I too wonder about my women ancestors whose maiden names are difficult to locate. Some cultures have included the mother's maiden names for a long time. This is especially true in Latin American countries, where the names can be quite long given the acknowledgement of the mothers' and fathers' lineages.
I understand that there is an aging Mormon woman in Corpus who has phenomenal abilities in tracing lineages. I can find out more about her if you're interested in pursuing this.
Post a Comment