Looking at my Strands

Because my father’s family had a story that I still haven’t entirely unraveled, some of my earlier research centered on my mother’s family. That was a safe bet. My mother’s father, as far as she knew, had a line that had been in the New World since the 1600s. (I was eventually able to bear her out on this.) She knew, thankfully, her paternal grandmother’s maiden name, so that gave me a start on pushing back the cover on another generation. My mother’s maternal line had a well-documented history in the state of Florida, and they were fiercely proud of their surname. Within this family grouping I now had a cluster of names: Davis, Boothe, McClellan, Broyles.

After my research hiatus during the starving-student years of college and post-college unemployment, I added some new family strands with the occasion of my marriage. These were names centered in the west: Bean, Woodworth, Sowle, Brague.

Life happens, and sometimes that includes widowhood. Happily, the story continues with a more upbeat Part Two: a second marriage added the paternal surnames Stevens, Tully, Kelly, paired with maternal names Flowers, Metzger, Gordon, and Snider. This, additionally, expanded my geographical concentration to include Canada and Ireland.

Those are enough lines to start weaving!