Ancestor

Daily Challenges: A new idea to explore and create each day. Use sound and photos, too!

Who is one of your most interesting relatives? Famous or infamous? Well-known or unknown? Go digging for a good family story.

[Photo Credit: YWP photo Library, photo by Shannon Ripp]

Respond

Responses to this Challenge

Jan 28

non-fiction 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

joseph.deffner

William Slade

My family is full of William Slades. The earliest one I know about lived in 1700. The latest one is my great-great-uncle Bill who is in his 90's now. There was also one who was the headmaster of my school Thetford Academy, around 1900. The one I’m writing about, however, is one I never met, but who, I think, had an interesting life.

Jan 26

poem 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

lindseycarbee

Change

Our ancestors,
most of whom are immigrants,
outcasts in American society.

Names changed,
to fit the new society,
“Americanized.”

Duke Farbourg,
my ancestor,
an immigrant from France.

A duke,
once held in high regards,
now was just another outcast.

Farbourg,
a name that meant something in France,
changed to Farr,
leaving his identity far away.

Is it fair for one’s indentity to be changed?
Definitely not.
Is Farr easier to write and speak?
Most certainly.

One man,
one journey,
to one country,
changed my family’s name,
making me who I am today.

Jan 26

non-fiction 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

William789

Dirk Willems

My name is actually William Douglas (not William Willems, fortunately), but my mom’s name is Emily Willems, and the ancestor that I’m writing about now was named Dirk Willems. My mom has told me about this before, but I didn’t actually know the whole story until I researched it just now. Basically, all my family members on my mom’s side of the family, going back hundreds of years, were Mennonites, which are Protestants called Anabaptists. Anabaptists believed that only people who knew what they were doing should get baptized, as opposed to other Protestants who believed that everybody should be baptized at birth. In the Netherlands in the 1500s (specifically around 1569), the government stance was to support that of non-Anabaptists, and Anabaptists were extremely persecuted. Dirk was, of course, an Anabaptist and was imprisoned for his beliefs. He eventually managed to escape the prison (which used to be a palace) using a rope made of knotted rags.

Jan 26

non-fiction 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

keelan durham

Augustus Downing Daily

My great great great grandfather, Augustus Downing Daily grew up a orphan. His family died when he was young of yellow fever. He and his twin brother were the only family members to survive. legend has it he and his twin were very close. When they were sixteen the Civil War started. He and his twin escaped from the orphanage, lied about their age and joined the army. At some point they got separated never to see eachother again. My great great great grandfather fought at many battles eventually ending his military career as part of Sherman's March to the sea. When the the war was over he eventually found himself in Corinth New York, ironic because I now live in Corinth Vermont. Here he met my Great Great Great Grandmother and was a pioneer in the undertaking business. Throughout all his life he stayed a active part of the Grand Army of the Republic a Civil War veterans club he traveled all over the country to attend meetings.

Jan 26

non-fiction 0 comments challenge: Ancestor

k drake

Ma Famille

Family history can tell a lot about a person and where they come from. It can tell where they got their mannerisms. My great great great grandfather was named Edgar Jennings. He was born and raised in Auburn, New York. He was a General in the New York State 27th Infantry. He fought in World War 1 and the Spanish American War. He was also a Commissioner of the Auburn Prison. He worked there for many years before a riot broke out. The first time he was caught in a riot he was hurt but nothing more then that. The next time it happened December 15th, 1929, he was taken captive and held as a hostage for 24 hours. During those twenty-four hours he was hung and tortured. He survived and went off the grid after that. We know that he went through and saw a lot of things in his lifetime. In the end it made him a stronger person and that strength has carried out through my entire family.

Jan 26

non-fiction 0 comments challenge: Ancestor

ha.thurston

My great ancestor, Edward Eugene Limlaw was born on January 10,1919, in Burlington, Vermont. He was adopted in 1919 at birth.. He never met his biological mother but he did meet his father. Him and his family moved from Waterbury, Vermont and then moved to Corinth, Vermont. Edward lived on a farm with his family in his early years.

He was drafted into the army in 1940 before World War II had begun. He stayed in the United States until the war begun. He was then sent to Germany and was a Private First Class soldier. His job as army private was to put communication cable across Germany to the border. He drove the truck with the cable in it. Many soldiers were from cities and did not know how to drive. Edward was a country boy and had experience with driving trucks. He received a broken nose while driving the truck when the enemy fired at them and he a had to drive fast.

Jan 26

poem 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

H20.hollym

Margulius

(brief disclaimer: Margulius is my last name)

Margulius.

It tumbles and somersaults
and lands with a splat!
on the tongue of the teacher
taking attendance.

As I introduce myself,
It twists into a goofy
smoke bomb poof
of spazzing colors.

And I can see the
bright blue bubbling
question marks pop up
over their heads.

It's Romanian, I say.

But that hardly explains anything.
It doesn't cover how
my last name came to be mine,
a 15-year-old girl in Vermont.
And it doesn't cover
the infinitely deep well beneath the
somersaulting syllables.

Margulius is Romanian.

But that's not the whole story.

Not even a fraction of it, actually.

I only know a part of it myself,
as follows:

Margulius is
a mother hanging
on to her ten-year-old son.
Each other and the old house

Jan 25

non-fiction 1 comment challenge: Ancestor

zoebarton

Relative

He was a golfer, a father, a dentist, and a grandfather. He was born in, and he died in a small town that he valued and that valued him in return. His mother was from the same place, and she married his father, even though it was frowned upon because his father was Greek. His father had jumped on a boat at the age of 16 and sailed from Greece to the town where he would start his adult life, despite being close to broke. His father then changed his last name so it would sound better on the American tongue, and then, when a devastating fire burned down parts of Main Street, he rebuilt it and named a smaller street that branched off of the main one after his new last name.

Jan 25

poem 0 comments challenge: Ancestor

king ewa

Fairness

Death and despair
is not one's choice to wear,
but forced upon,
so cold so subtle;
NO NO NO there
shall not be a rebuttal.
This is final, this is forever,
however we can dissever this death, this despair,
yet still to leave us with one question.

Was it fair?

Jan 25

poem 0 comments challenge: Ancestor

king ewa

Responses to this Challenge

Pages