My grandmother's father died when she was young, then her step-father died when she was twelve, I think it was. Her mother remarried again, and was always travelling while my grandmother was in boarding schools... so sometimes I think the genealogy stems from a wish to connect with a family that had always been somewhat distant and intermittent.
The real storyteller in the family, though, is on my father's side -- my first cousin once removed, by marriage. (In other words: the wife of my father's first cousin.) Cousin P was a good country boy from south Georgia, got a scholarship to Harvard Law, went up with hat in hand and came home with a Boston princess of the highest blue blood... who was absolutely a total terror growing up. Ran away frequently -- to the bushes "at the top of the drive" (where "drive" is like a quarter-mile from the house) and would set herself up in defiance of the family. Fortunately, she didn't starve because the servants would sneak her food, until she got tired or cold and came home. Yes. SERVANTS. Hehehe. And then there was the time she poured laundry soap into the swimming pool, or the time she tried to set her brother's hair on fire...
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Date: 22 Jan 2011 06:43 pm (UTC)The real storyteller in the family, though, is on my father's side -- my first cousin once removed, by marriage. (In other words: the wife of my father's first cousin.) Cousin P was a good country boy from south Georgia, got a scholarship to Harvard Law, went up with hat in hand and came home with a Boston princess of the highest blue blood... who was absolutely a total terror growing up. Ran away frequently -- to the bushes "at the top of the drive" (where "drive" is like a quarter-mile from the house) and would set herself up in defiance of the family. Fortunately, she didn't starve because the servants would sneak her food, until she got tired or cold and came home. Yes. SERVANTS. Hehehe. And then there was the time she poured laundry soap into the swimming pool, or the time she tried to set her brother's hair on fire...