Creating a Future to Discover the Past

"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create."—Leonard I. Sweet

This week's blog topic is Future. I think about the future a lot, but especially at this time of the year.

It's not what you think. I don't get all sentimental at the holidays or anything like that. I just hate winter. I hate the cold. I hate being cooped up inside. I hate wearing shoes and socks all the time. 

You see, this is the time I think about the summer. I go through seed catalogs and plan my garden. I look at calendars of spring and summer festivals in the area to visit with my grandchildren. I plan my summer vacation.

More and more, my summer plans have included visits to places where my ancestors lived. I want to know how and why, if possible, they left their homes in other places and how I came to live in Missouri. What influenced their decisions? Were they looking for better opportunities? Were they running from some type of misfortune? Were they adventurers?

The first real research trip I made was to Tennessee. I visited the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville and dug up a few things. Then I drove around the state to a few courthouses, churches, and cemeteries. It was all pretty uneventful until I went to Obion County, Tennessee to a small town called Hornbeak. After meeting a man who lived next to the church and knew of my ancestor, I was hooked!

Since that time I have taken a few trips, but the one the summer of 2020 will be the best yet.
I know it will require a lot of planning and a lot of research, but it's the trip of a lifetime. I want to do it right.

I'm going create my future, my 2020, to make it as genealogically fruitful and as emotionally rewarding as possible.

My daughter Jen and I are going first to Paris. I've never been, but some of my ancestors were there. One, Nicolas Hébert, was an apothecary and may have been associated with Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France. She supposedly had cabinets of poisons. Did she get them from him? She was also known to have met with Nostradamus. Did my ancestor know him too? I need to know more!

There are other ancestors who lived in the Paris vicinity. I want to learn and see as much as I can, and advance research is so important.

Fortunately for us, my daughter speaks and reads French. While she's busy diving into French history, I'll be working on another family line. We are going to leave Paris after a few days and take a ferry from Calais to Dover and see the White Cliffs of Dover as they are meant to be seen - from the water.

Then we are going to travel across southern England, seeing the sights until we arrive in Devon, England. Our Dunsford, Ware, and associated ancestors lived in many of the small towns in the middle of Devon. They were commoners - gardeners, paper makers, rope makers. I want to learn more about their lives and visit the places they frequented. I am just as excited about these families. We're going to get to stay in some country manor houses, even one with a thatched roof (Thanks, AirBnb!). We will look out over the moors at the beauty of England, and, of course, go to Cornwall - Sidenote: If you haven't watched Poldark, you need to watch it. Cornwall is amazingly beautiful. 

I hope all of you are planning a 2020 as great as I hope mine will be.

Happy New Year!

Here's to the future!

P.S. You should all check out the great prices on Norwegian Airlines, which made this trip possible.

Unplanned "Adventures" of Michel Messier dit St. Michel, My 8th Great Grandfather

Merriam-Webster defines adventure as "an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks" or "an exciting or remarkable experience." Today, our adventures tend to be the latter. They are positive things in our lives, like my solo-trip by car from St. Louis, Missouri to Arizona and New Mexico this past summer. That was truly an adventure! 

My ancestors' adventures were different. They were frightening, life-altering experiences. It's hard for me to think of the things they endured using the term "adventure." This is especially true for my French-Canadian ancestors. They came to the wildest places in North America, broke ground, and established families. They traveled down rivers and lakes, deep into the unknown interior of what is now the United States, and settled there too. Imagine how remote their tiny villages were in comparison to those on the Eastern Seaboard. They didn't live next to their indigenous neighbors. They lived among them. They intermarried with the friendly tribes and fought with their adversaries.

Michel Messier dit St. Michel was one of these men.

The Tragic Lives of James and Hannah Lowe Flint, My 3rd Great Grandparents

My family tree is full of everyday people. They are not royalty. They are not great war heroes. They are not celebrities of popular culture. They would largely be forgotten if not for the efforts of people like you and me - the family historians. I admit that at times I wish for those great stories and great connections to things we learn in school, but I also realize that it's the contributions made by the common men and women that make our country and our world into a functioning society.

Some of my ancestors struggled and, sometimes, they made decisions I cannot begin to understand. This week's theme "Context" provided me an opportunity to better examine my third great grandparents, James and Hannah Lowe Flint. Their lives did not end well. I first wrote about them in October of 2014 HERE.  James died at the age of 78 after he fell down some cellar stairs in a drunken stupor, fracturing his skull. He was found the following day. It's hard not to feel embarrassed about this. He wasn't a hero. What did his drunkenness do to his family? Was he a burden to them? Were they glad he died?

More recently I learned the fate of his wife, Hannah Lowe Flint.

She committed suicide 12 years before her husband's death. 

She drowned herself.

Again, my thoughts were directed at blaming her. Why would she do this to her family? Was she a burden to them? Were they glad or relieved that she died? Was she the cause of her husband's drinking, or did his drinking contribute to her depression?

James and Hannah were born in Manchester, England. They grew up during the height of the Industrial Revolution, in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The city boomed, but the working class suffered. There were food riots, protests, and, eventually, reforms. James and Hannah did not wait for the reforms. A few months after their first son was born, they left for Philadelphia, where their other 8 children were born, including twins who died at birth.

Sometime between 1850 and 1860, James and Hannah moved to St. Louis, Missouri. James was a blacksmith and engineer/machinist. He made steam engines, or at least placed advertisements for them. They were poor, members of the working class.

On the surface, James and Hannah escaped the working class struggles of Manchester. They started a new life in America where they raised their family. But in all likelihood, all they did was change their location. There were working class struggles in the United States too. 

They may have regretted their decision. They may have missed their family at home. It's even possible that Hannah did not want to come, knowing she may never see her family again. By the time she killed herself, 6 of her 9 children had died. 

I do not know the full context of the lives of James and Hanna Lowe Flint. I do not know all of the details surrounding their decisions. I probably never will.

So who am I to judge? 

James and Hannah were my 3rd great grandparents.

I'm proud of them for having the bravery to leave everything they knew to 

move to a new place - twice.

I'm proud of them for trying to create a comfortable life, even if they weren't successful.

I'm proud to call them family, because I wouldn't be here without them.