Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Ancestors

My family is from Appalachia.  My grandparent's and parent's generation left as soon as they could - not all of them, but many.  They came to Cincinnati to work at the automotive factory.  At that time, you could get a unionized factory job without a high school diploma if you had a family member already working there.  Once one uncle found work at the factory, others followed.

I believe the work was difficult in the early 1960's.  The factories were loud and hot.  The work was repetitive and not as automated as it is now.  I imagine every minute in the factory felt like hell. 

The writer in me isn't as interested in working in the factories; I'm fascinated by what made my ancestors leave the hills, what kept them there for so many generations, and how hard it was living on the side of the mountain, one generation before the next.  I try to imagine how difficult it was doing laundry without electricity, having families with six or seven children in a house the size of my living room, being a woman in that time period, surviving in terrible times when the mines were closed, working in the coal mine day after day until you get diagnosed with black lung and lose your ability to support your family, and how they dealt with miscarriages and illness.

I'm interested in the stories my great grandma told me while she made me fried chicken, homemade biscuits, and blackberry cobbler, stories of living in the hills with only a dog and a shotgun for protection.  She told me she was part Cherokee, but didn't tell me how that affected her life and how people treated her.  I wish I had asked.

I wonder about a woman named Jane Ann, my mother's great grandma, who was half Cherokee.  I want to know who her parents were, how she came to be born, and how her life was when she was a child.
 







5 comments:

  1. Well you can always make up stuff. Most of my relatives came from Ohio or Michigan I think. Probably pretty boring stuff.

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    1. I definitely want to write some historical fiction using these 'characters' as starting points.

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  2. Tonja, there are sites online where you can research your heritage. You might also be able to track down others who lived a similar life and kept really good records. It would give you a feel for how they lived. And yes, I imagine it was really rough.

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    1. I was up until 2:00 AM on Friday night doing research...and not working on my novel.

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  3. I'm greatly interested in my family history as well. My Mother's Paternal family tree is pretty exhaustive and I've self pubbed a book about them, relying entirely on research done by others. Anyway, it's truly fascinating. Good luck researching.

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