My Ancestry

The assignment for day 17 of Writing 101 asks us to use Google maps to create a story of some sort. This assignment was tough for me. I wanted to focus on my ancestry. I have all this information and have created numerous family trees, but there are key pieces of info that I am missing. This missing information and my searches on Google maps inspired me to write this poem for today:

My ancestry remains a mystery,
despite the papers scattered around me,
like pieces of a puzzle that just won’t fit,
I wish my searches would come up with a hit.

I have lists of my ancestors’ names
but so many are the same,
passed along through family lines,
I know that’s what was done at the time. 

A wreath of flowers hangs on my wall.
I wish that this picture could talk
and tell me the name of the father who was 78
when this 1859 gift was handmade using pen and paint.

 A boarding pass in German began a voyage from France,
on a sailing vessel with three masts.
To America they came to start a new life.
What did their hometown look like in 1855? 

Technology allows me to see each place
from where my origins trace.
But I wish I knew my ancestors’ tales
from England, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, and Wales.

I want to know more about the family members who came to America hundreds of years ago. I want to see the towns where they lived. I wish I could see what everything looked like during their time – the houses and lands. There’s even a castle in the mix, which is now open to the public because my family fled Scotland for safety reasons – when you try to kill a family member and fail, that’s a problem.

Here are some places I found using Google maps that are on my bucket list to visit. Hometowns of my ancestors.