How To Give the Gift of a Memory (Custom Sketches Now Open!)
A few years before my grandfather died, he offered to pay willing grandchildren to research our family tree. I was assigned the branch of my great-grandmother and quickly became addicted to the project. After a year or so I presented to my grandfather the compiled information, all bound in a nice album. What a great memory – sitting with him, flipping through the fascinating stories and photos.
As you might imagine, the research brought up all kinds of interesting things, and like every family line, we’ve got the good and the bad. Included among those were an author of the United States Constitution, the first Supreme Court Justice, and a U.S. President from the last 15 years. We had struggling orphans, indomitable Red Cross volunteers, sailors, lawyers, and musicians.
The common thread is our blood relation to an indentured servant from France.
In the early 1600’s, French Protestants faced severe persecution and this ancestor of mine, a French Huguenot (Protestant) in his mid-twenties, had to get out. He became an indentured servant, allowing him to gain passage to the British Colony of Maryland.
After his indentured seven years ended, he was eventually able to buy land, naming it after his home village in France. And last week I stood there, back in that little French town where he was born to Nicola and Thomas close to 400 years ago.
My relatives still live in Maryland after all these years, but it was my grandfather who migrated west to follow the girl he loved after fighting in WWII. They married in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
How brilliant was it of him to get his grandchildren on board this way? All of us who participated feel a deep connection with the information now, which I’m sure was his hope.
I sketched this little street from the town for my parents, and have it available as a digital download in my shop. Just purchase, print, and pop into a frame for a little reminder to history, family, and connecting to the stories that shape us.
Plus, check available spots below if you’d like to commission your own drawing!
Custom Sketch Booking
