As I’ve been tending my backyard with mulching and gardening while we head into summer, I’ve been thinking a lot about roots—not just those of the plants, shrubs and flowers that stretch their veins deep into the ground, but of my own ancestral roots.
A visit to northern New Hampshire last summer, where I met some of my cousins for the very first time, prompted me to delve into the history of part of my maternal ancestry, the Theriaults. I never knew my gran
dmother, Edna, in person; she had passed away before I was born. But I’ve always felt a very strong connection to her spirit. One of eight children, she was born in 1909 to Isaie and Philomene Landry Theriault in Grande-Anse, New Brunswick, Canada. Her father, Isaie, was a farmer (that's my great grandparents' farmhouse in Grande-Anse to the left in the black-and-white photo), and the family had come down to live and work in the United States (sometime around 1912) where they settled in northern New Hampshire. My grandmother and my aunt would later move during the 1940s industrial boom down to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where my mother was born and raised (and, in the late 1970s, I was born and raised too). I’ve never ceased to be amazed through the years at how many of my grandmother’s traits are in my mom, in me and in other relatives based on the stories I’ve heard from my parents, cousins, and neighbors and friends who knew her. And then when I met more of my cousins last summer, there was one in particular with whom I bonded straight away in an uncanny sort of way—we were so alike in so many ways, not only in terms of interests, but even in mannerisms and personality. I began thinking, then, that while some traits develop through life experience and an eternal spirit, there are others encoded in DNA just waiting to get activated.
A visit to northern New Hampshire last summer, where I met some of my cousins for the very first time, prompted me to delve into the history of part of my maternal ancestry, the Theriaults. I never knew my gran
dmother, Edna, in person; she had passed away before I was born. But I’ve always felt a very strong connection to her spirit. One of eight children, she was born in 1909 to Isaie and Philomene Landry Theriault in Grande-Anse, New Brunswick, Canada. Her father, Isaie, was a farmer (that's my great grandparents' farmhouse in Grande-Anse to the left in the black-and-white photo), and the family had come down to live and work in the United States (sometime around 1912) where they settled in northern New Hampshire. My grandmother and my aunt would later move during the 1940s industrial boom down to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where my mother was born and raised (and, in the late 1970s, I was born and raised too). I’ve never ceased to be amazed through the years at how many of my grandmother’s traits are in my mom, in me and in other relatives based on the stories I’ve heard from my parents, cousins, and neighbors and friends who knew her. And then when I met more of my cousins last summer, there was one in particular with whom I bonded straight away in an uncanny sort of way—we were so alike in so many ways, not only in terms of interests, but even in mannerisms and personality. I began thinking, then, that while some traits develop through life experience and an eternal spirit, there are others encoded in DNA just waiting to get activated. I don't mean to leave out my other maternal line or paternal lines from this discussion, it’s just that the Theriault line is the one I feel most connected to, probably because those are the relatives I know and see, and maybe also because it's the only ancestral line I have a long and clear record of, a comprehensive “tree,” that can be traced far back—not just to Acadia but all the way back to the end of the 16th century in France, beginning with Jehan Terriot (b. 1601) in Martaizé, Poitou.
As I garden I think of how Jehan’s love of the land and nature is in my blood. He too, so the stories go, loved gardening (a jardinier besides fermer). And there are other things I’ve inherited too: my cousin’s adventurousness, my mother’s wit and resilience, my grandmother’s frankness, and general things like hard work, standing up for what’s right and fair, a valuing of honesty, and an overall joie de vivre; this is my Acadian heritage, one of which I am extremely fiere.
Issue 3 of Blinking Cursor (a literary magazine based in the UK) is now available here (either as a PDF file for free or a print copy for purchase). You will find my poem “Prismic Waves” on page 21. You can also find “Judgment (or God is a woman)” and “Prometheus Wired” in the June 2010 issue of Lunarosity. While these poems are fictitious, the emotions they tap into are honest. To me, that is the most important part of writing—the expression of truth. In fact nothing matters more than truth; that is the legacy of my ancestors. Fleurir où tu es planté. I thank my ancestors for their gifts planted in me and hope I will always be a credit to them.
As I garden I think of how Jehan’s love of the land and nature is in my blood. He too, so the stories go, loved gardening (a jardinier besides fermer). And there are other things I’ve inherited too: my cousin’s adventurousness, my mother’s wit and resilience, my grandmother’s frankness, and general things like hard work, standing up for what’s right and fair, a valuing of honesty, and an overall joie de vivre; this is my Acadian heritage, one of which I am extremely fiere.Issue 3 of Blinking Cursor (a literary magazine based in the UK) is now available here (either as a PDF file for free or a print copy for purchase). You will find my poem “Prismic Waves” on page 21. You can also find “Judgment (or God is a woman)” and “Prometheus Wired” in the June 2010 issue of Lunarosity. While these poems are fictitious, the emotions they tap into are honest. To me, that is the most important part of writing—the expression of truth. In fact nothing matters more than truth; that is the legacy of my ancestors. Fleurir où tu es planté. I thank my ancestors for their gifts planted in me and hope I will always be a credit to them.
AWESOME writing! U are as interested in family history as I once was---pretty cool the things you discover. No wonder i feel like I'm finally HOME--- the horses, farm, garden to me THAT is ALL I need for happiness. Would love to know more about the lineage you found back to France. I only know about the one from my grandfathers side(De Grace)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jann! I've sent you the two versions of the family tree that I have.
ReplyDelete