Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Past Present Future

                           

Girlfromthepast

 

 

When my ancestors traveled from Portugal to the Azores Islands during the thirteen century,  I was with them.  I was under their skin, living within their cells, intertwined within their spirit. Their sense of wonder and awe beats steady within my heart.

When my Grandmother was a young girl she lived in the Azores when she stepped outside her front door she saw the ocean. The ocean she would set sail on to go to America at the age of fourteen. I saw the horizon through her eyes, the sense of adventure trickles down to my toes.

When my Dad rode his motorcycle roaring through the countryside, it is his laugh that echoes enormously in my soul.

And when my Mother jitter-bugged with her sisters on the dance floor I felt the beat from their rhythm,  moving me to kick up my heel and twirl in the light of the moon.

We are connected past, present, and future.

Where do you come from?

Photo:  A vintage calendar that hangs in my Godmother's house.

Comments

14 responses to “Past Present Future”

  1. Jacklynn Lantry

    I have always dreamed of France but my ancestry is Irish. When I went to Ireland to find my roots they said “your roots are in France. The French (Catholics) came to Ireland to help oust the Brits (Protestants) and, though not successful, many stayed. Lantry (my name) is french in origin.” Oh how I wanted to believe that!!! I have never been able to back it up with research or documentation, in fact, what I find usually says the name is more Irish than anything else, lol! I do know, when i went to Ireland I felt as is I saw the ghost/shadow/presence of my dad every place I looked and at every turn.

    Reply
  2. Leigh NZ

    I’m a 5th generation Kiwi, due to my Great, Great Great Grandfather Launcelot Giles arriving in Canterbury NZ in 1856. He was a cider maker and threshing machine importer from Somerset, England and purhaps that is why I absolutely adore Bath and the Cotswolds.
    I’m a bit of a mongrel really with my mixed ancestry from England, Scotland, Ireland & Germany. There has to be a French ancestor there somewhere….

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  3. Marilyn

    Wow! Corey, what very special words to guide our imaginations. I hope I was under the skin of my grandpa, for he was the one that loved nature and to dance. His tears and his laughter touched my soul.

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  4. Taste of France

    My ancestors came from all over Europe. My mother did genealogy and looked not only for names and dates but also for photos and stories of their lives. She wanted to know how much they paid for a house, where they went to church, and of course to read any correspondence or diaries that would explain their lives. Volumes and volumes of notes.

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  5. tammyCA

    My ancestors came mostly from England & Denmark on my mother’s side & Ireland, German on dad’s side. John Alden & Priscilla Mullins from the Mayflower are my I forget how many greats grandparents, as are some Southworths (also escaping England’s religious intolerance) who sailed after the Mayflower. I traced back through England & it lead to some ancestors in France so I guess there’s a smidgen of French blood, too. Apparently, there is still the Southworth Manor in England that my ancestors left..England is beautiful but I’m so grateful for all of them giving me the cherished gift of America, freedom & democracy.

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  6. Our French Oasis

    Scottish and French on my Mother’s side of the family and English through and through on my Father’s side. Maybe this reflects that I am equally at home in all three of these countries, plus we have family in each of them too!

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  7. NancyO

    My ancestors are from many countries in Europe; most of them came to America 300-400 years ago and are easily traced. The most intriguing to me though, is my paternal grandfather. He arrived from Denmark in the late 1800s. I know little about his family, but have been to the small town of Haderslev, Denmark twice and each visit has given me more information. And each visit I feel an affinity to the area that I didn’t think possible. I can actually touch the house where he was born, go into the church where he was christened.
    Chills down my spine to be where he lived, happiness at being there, tears when I leave….all in one little town.
    Hopefully a third visit is on the horizon.

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  8. Linda V

    I am German and Swiss. First generation from my father’s German side. He came to America at 15 in 1939 because Hitler was drafting younger and younger boys. My grandparents could not get out until 1949. Luckily they were in a very small town that was not bombed. I have many stories from them about that time and that of WWI also. They had lived in England prior to WWI where my grandfather had a butcher shop. The shop was confiscated and he was sent to the Isle of Man during WWI and my grandmother was sent back to Germany with two little children to live a very meagre life during that time. I have a lot of stories about that as well.

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  9. Lil

    Everyone should record or write down their family stories so they won’t be lost forever.

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  10. Dawn

    I love your blog and writings you share with us. I was personally born in suburban Chicago. My grandma & grandpa on my mom’s side came to Chicago from the hills of Marsala Sicily. Only got to know my grandma – she was 4’10” and a little ball of fire at times. I’ve often pictured her running barefoot through the hills after her husband in one of her dresses back in Sicily. She never wore pants a day in her life!
    On my dad’s side one set of great grandparents came from Norway & Denmark to Chicago; the other set came from Berlin & England to Chicago. I only got to know a great grandma from Berlin who was an excellent baker. I have many of her cookie recipes that are very difficult to read and decipher. I am indeed a mixture of different cultures.

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  11. Kathie

    I live in the California diaspora. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!!

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  12. joy

    My Mom was born in January 1902. I hope it’s ok with you, Corey, that I’m “borrowing” this image to include in a collage. Many thanks for posting it!

    Reply
  13. elsy

    my russian great grandparents fled persecution of the jews and fled the pale of settlement to the east end of london and there raised their children in extreme poverty. i can only imagine how frightened they must have been to make that journey(to leave was not allowed) and fear for those they left behind…..i have always been slightly haunted by their story and the effect it had trickled down the generations and through my father to me. i remind myself so often how lucky are we and our children.

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  14. monika

    We came to Canada in 1969; my family is Czech and Austrian, hundreds of years back. A few weeks ago, we unearthed the story of a notorious great uncle to my stepfather, in a book by Nabokov. His great uncle was an Admiral in the Russian Imperial Fleet, an Arctic explorer, and a leader in the White Russian movement. He came from a family where they were proclaimed Heroes of Sebastopol, and once trekked 800 km in the Arctic, dragging a sled behind him, mapping the area. He captained the world’s first icebreaker. He served as a the Second in a famous duel, and rescued the Russian Admiral from his sinking ship in the disastrous battle of Fushima. He escaped the Bolsheviks, having been caught and imprisoned in Petrograd, by running across the sea ice to Finland. He and his wife (he married Nina Nabokov) lived as Russian Emgirées in Paris, where he died, run over by an American truck during its liberation from the Nazis. Now, there is a bay, river, bunch of islands and a Russian ship named in his honour. The funny thing is that my stepdad designed icebreakers, and worked much of his career in the arctic. He could never understand his obsession with the sea, coming from a landlocked country. But the parallels with his notorious Great Uncle Nicky are striking.
    Mz husband’s family came over to Canada from France in 1615, he is that man’s namesake. His ancestor took as a wife a fille du roi. We’ve traced him back to France. Of course, there were many other interesting ancestors, the Scottish side, who came to fight with Wolfe against the French side in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. It is so fascinating to untangle the history, and tease apart all the varied stories that have come together to make us who we are.

    Reply

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