Family Tree
Embracing our Ancestral Identity
With the development of DNA testing in recent years, it’s much easier for us to trace our genetic code. I have not gone down the path of doing a DNA profile, though I know many who have. To me, there’s a little something about my DNA being on file somewhere that makes me uneasy and I’ve just never done it. I do know a fair amount about my recent family lines and one of these days when I have time and desire, I will open the Ancestry account that my daughter created and see what I can learn.
I am very glad that I sat down with my mom and dad in their latter years and asked questions and let them share stories, some of which I had never heard. I would encourage all my readers to do that with their grandparents, parents, and extended family as well as to record their own history for the generations that follow. My Grandma Bennett was a teacher/writer who wrote some of her family history as part of a book project about the homesteaders and residents of Wolf Creek, Montana where I grew up. I’m very grateful for even that limited history that someone took the time to assemble. There are a few mysteries and characters in my family line that maybe I’ll share about in a future blog post.
For now I will offer a poem I recently wrote about my family line for an online group writing project. What would your family tree look like? If you could draw it, what kind of tree would you draw? Tell me about yours in the comments!
Inheritance
Centuries of surviving and thriving,
struggling and overcoming storms.
Some branches became splintered,
some grew while families were formed.
Stories of bravery and determination,
Finding their way to new lands.
Creating a legacy through trial and error
Making sure their destiny withstands.
These are the people who made me a shoot,
Strength drawn from a solid foundation.
My own branch now thriving with leaves
Evidence of steadfast formation.
I am the granddaughter of wayfarers,
The blend of my mom and dad,
A sister to sisters, mother of a generation,
Grateful for all the progenitors I had.
My family tree stands strong and tall
A proud heritage upon which to build
A mighty spruce grown through mists of time
A timeline of family fulfilled. 
I didn't want to do the DNA either with my ancestry. Didn't have to anyway. Ancestry.com wasn't any good to me, except for one photo. I got a bit from my dad's side of tge family, but I got most of my information from Births, Deaths & Marriages. It was so much easier to trace backwards by the certificates. This gave me, limited, information on the parents, their jobs & where they came from. So I could trace from my Grandmother, Grandfather to there parents, then from my Great Granparents, to my Great, Great Grandparents etc. I have done books on my both sides of my ancestry. I spend a long time doing the research, & wven though at times it was frustrating, I loved it. I could only go so far back on my Irish side as the records only had what County they came from. Trying to find more information was difficult as lots of records were lost due to a fire in the Irish archives. You really need to know the church they were baptised etc, but I don't have that information. But in the end I found out that both my mum's & dad's ancestors came to Australia in the same generation. Around the Gold rush era. So I traced 8 lines for each parent. Incredibly, on my mum's side, I found that all 8 lines are Irish. Mum thought her line was predominantly English. No English at all. On my dad's line, one line is Welsh, rwo are English, two are German & three are Irish. So out of the 16 direct lines, 11 lines are Irish. And as I said, all 16 lines came to Australia in the same generation. That being my 2 times great grandparents. Some of the surnames changes in spelling due to either misunderstanding of pronunciation or spelling. Irish Breslan, became Brosnan, Irish Scullion became Scullin & German Stutz, became Stitz (which was due to fear of persecution during WW1). The only claim to fame or point of interest, is that my great, great Uncle, James Scullin, who was Prime Minister of Australia (1929-1931). With my research, I also went to the National Archives of Victoria & got access to wills & rates books. At my local library, I also looked up paaenger lists, old phone books, census, cemetery records. I have visited, all but a couple of, the graves & properties of all my ancestors that came to Australia. I have even been to some of the churches they got married in. Even though the properties have changed over the years, or a few gravestones were missing, I have photos of the properties & gravesite etc. I felt quite emotional visiting the gravesites & thanked everyone of them for being my ancestor. It has been an amazing experience & I hope to try to later investigate to see if I can find anymore information as I did get some paperclipping from newspapers. But I really hope to go back further into generations prior to those that came to Australia. I have delved into this a little & found some minor information, but I would really need to concentrate solely on this to attempt more. I hope you find your ancestry Cathey. As you can tell, I have a passion for it. It took me several years of investigation on & off. I spent many trips driving to country towns & going to their archives for information. But it's been worth all the time & effort.
My family can be traced back to thrle early settlers in Bern, Switzerland. My Great great grandfather was a public official and owned a grocery store in Bern, thus the name Bernthal as my mother's
maiden name. On my father's side, my grandfather was born to Lithuanian Jewish folk, my grandmother to German Jews. 6 of my Grandfather's brothers came over to America and worked as tailor's, grocers, and were in other trades. My Grandfather was a meat cutter and owned his own meat store. I remember him sending is prime cuts from Chicago when we were living in Denver, Colorado. My father was studying to be a doctor, and supporting his larger family when he caught TB and was sent to the mountains for the fresh air. He eventually sold surgical supplies instead. Mom was a top secretary for Detroit Edison company. Mom and Dad met at a social event at the Universalist-Unitarian church in Denver Colorado.