Ancestor Stories

[qos]

In Hebrew Scriptures class last night, we discussed the three different times the story is told of a patriarch who tries to pass off his wife as his sister (Abraham twice, Isaac once). Now why, the prof asked us, would a story like that be one of the things that was passed down?

That led to a discussion of "ancestor stories." What are the stories that your family tells and re-tells about Those Who Came Before? And then we broke into small groups to tell those stories.

That's when I found out that I don't have good ancestor stories. I have a bunch of good stories about my family, especially my parents. I have a couple of stories about my grandparents. I seem to remember that my maternal grandmother's father (or grandfather?) had a bakery, and that the family had to leave town one night because their neighbors tried to burn down the bakery, but I can't remember the reason why. I have no stories about why any branch of the family came to this country. No stories of particularly colorful or formidable ancestors.

So today I talked with my dad on the phone and commented on this to him and asked him why we don't have any stories. I could hear the shrug in his voice as he said, "They just don't seem relevant to the life we have now."

Then I made my other observation: that although his public personna is one of dignity, responsibility, and reserve, most of the stories he tells about his own youth are trickster-type stories: about the fake ink spill on his mother's lace tablecloth, or substituting flashbulbs for lightbulbs in the storeroom of the man who fired him. "You would think of something like that," he said -- which was not really in character for him. The conversation made him uncomfortable in a way I don't often hear.

It was fascinating. . . And it makes me want to sit down and interrogate both him and my mother about their families. Although our aunts Frances and Gloria (one from each side) would probably be better sources.

raptures_shadow, what do you think?

And the rest of you: do your families have ancestor stories?

Comments

[moonborn.livejournal.com]

My family's reaction to my own quest for ancestor stories was actually very similar to what you've described - my grandfather, grandmother and father all clammed up very quickly and seemed bothered by my questions.

[rocket-jockey.livejournal.com]

A lot of families dropped stories because of social embarassment or because they came from the "old country" and had little to do with their new lives.

Our family stories all end just a few generations back - the Irishman who came to North America and homesteaded Arkansas in the early 1800's (I have his broadaxe in my shed - the primary tool that built my family's first home on this continent), the great-grandfather who left my mom's father and his siblings alone as small children to fend for themselves while he went off in search of a fortune he never found, the great-great uncle who was born a slaveholder and lived long enough to see the civil rights movement, the great-grandfather ashamed of the Native American woman he married even as he adored her.

There are a lot of things that became lost: my grandparents once had a box full of photographs of people and places that vanished well before my parents were born, names with nothing to hang them on, until the pictures themselves disappeared somewhere along the way. It's kind of sad, really.

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

No ancestor stories from my family either - immigrants to NZ from around 1860-70 (depending on the branch). You can make educated guesses, but that's all.

But then, weaving meaning and narrative out of their lives - and out of our collective lives - has not been a strong point of my family.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

An ancestor on my mother's side- William Allen- was a Quaker businessman. The story goes that he lent money to the Duke of Kent so that the Duke could get his wife to England in time for the birth of their child.

The child grew up to be Queen Victoria.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Now that is quite a story to have!
Thanks for sharing it.

[queenofhalves]

a few, esp. about my great-grandfather. also, my dad's into genealogy, so he has/remembers quite a bit of stuff... but i should really help him write it down sometime.

my favorites about my great-grandfather include: escaping from the schoolhouse as a boy by tying coats together into a rope and letting himself down out the window (he'd been locked in a coatroom for misbehavior); driving a cab as an adolescent and getting paid by men's wives to drag them out of bars, and knock them senseless with brass knuckles if they resisted; treating victims during the influenza epidemic of 1918 (i think) with a christian science who swore god would keep them from getting sick (and they didn't).