52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
2021
Week 1
Prompt – Beginnings
There are those points in our lives where we can look back and say that is how it all began. In the case of my genealogy, I have to say that working on the family tree happened through a series of beginnings.
In my tween or teen years while visiting my grandmother McLaughlin, I admired the black and white photograph on her dresser. As it turns out it was her parents – Andreas and Maria Krikau. She told me they were born in Russia. And further she was also born in Russia. It amazed me.
The next incident happened when Bill and I were sitting in Pastor Guebert's office (a week before our wedding) filling out our marriage certificate. The pastor asked me what my mother's maiden name was. I was stumped by the question. The pastor was incredulous. Where was she born and at that time I wasn't sure. Hmm! This was a legal document and I wanted to get it right. I knew for sure she had not taken the name of her mother's second husband - McLaughlin despite everyone thinking that she was legally a McLaughlin. At that point I wasn't even sure whether her biological father was a Sullivan or O'Sullivan. It was complicated.
In January of 2006, I got together with some of my siblings and I started asking them pointed questions about our family. One weekend was hardly enough time but then I just needed to know what we all knew about some very easy facts.
It started with what was our mother's full name. I was recording their answers and no surprise we got Lydia Vivian (she went by her second name and we all knew that) and then stumbled on her last name. I was interested in her “legal” name. There was a consensus that she was not adopted by grandma's second husband, simply because my mother despised her step father. We decided it had to be Sullivan. But I wanted to set out and find out for sure. That was the hook.
From these seemingly little incidents, my passion and love of my family tree began.
Wendy
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