Down the Rabbit Hole

Ancestoral Wonders

30 Day Blogging Challenge
PROMPT May 3rd
Tell us a fact about one of your ancestors. Where does your family come from? How far back can you trace your ancestry?

My ancestors on my father's side are all French Canadian. I had a great grandmother who still spoke in her lilting native tongue and welcomed station wagon loads of relatives to our homestead each summer when I was a child. They would arrive, speaking in rapid fire French, to grab our little faces to plant kisses on both cheeks. It was interesting...

I have long planned to go to Quebec to see where my family really comes from. Our name was actually spelled differently but was modified on my great grandfather's trip through immigration and customs. There are still roads and parcels of land there bearing my family's surname. My great grandparents came here together, a young couple who worked the land. My great grandmother in particular was the strongest lady I ever met. She was very independent. She never missed a day of church and demanded my father open our pool up in April. As soon as the cover was off and the chemicals cleared, she'd come marching up the drive in her bathing cap and suit and in she would go. It had to be frigid and we would watch her from the windows in absolute awe.

The most interesting ancestor though had to be my great-great-great grandmother on my mother's side. She hailed from the Azores. She spoke seven different languages and apparently worked for the government as a translator, something nearly unheard of for a woman from her time. My grandfather would talk about her in this revered way, this tiny, fierce lady who had the most gifted of brains.