Up a Tree

This week I decided to follow one branch of the family tree as far back as I could take it. That landed me in Normandy in the 11th century, which means if you go far enough back, I sort of have some French ancestry. Sort of you ask? Well, at the time Normandy was independent of its southern neighbor. Its whole history is sort of complicated, and I won't go into it all here. I would point out that by all accounts the region ultimately derived is modern name in the medieval period when it came under the reign of the Nortmanni, or northmen, a bunch of invaders we refer to nowadays as the Vikings.  If you watched the TV series about Vikings, you know that Viking rulers were called "jarls," but at some point the leading Northmen leaders began to be called "dukes." Normandy at this time is referred to as the Duchy of Normandy, and it had sufficient relations to the Kingdom of France that these leaders swore loyalty to the king. The region would in time become an offic...

I’ve been at this exploration of our family’s trees – Sharon’s side and my side – for a year now and wanted to take a moment to reflect in mostly general terms on the discoveries I’ve made. My family did not talk much about their heritage when I was growing up, and I admit that I had little curiosity. My mother had been estranged from her brothers for many years, and for reasons I can’t remember, finally decided to reconnect at the end of my high school years. I had opportunity to visit a couple of times with my uncle and his wife, mother’s younger brother. What I discovered in those visits was an alternate history to the little I knew from Mother’s rarely shared stories. To be sure, much of the history jibed well enough, but a couple of stories varied significantly, especially the events surrounding the split between our families. I knew Mother well enough to know she often changed the tale of her past to make her look more favorable and that she was not afraid of recounting incidents...