Off-Topic and Out of Context...

To help pass the time during the quarantine, I am reading "Faulkner-A Biography" by Joseph Blotner published in 1974, it is the "short version" of a 2 volume set published earlier. William Faulkner passed away in 1962; interest in his work was at its peak.

Once I finish reading the book, I will report.

But for now, I'm still in the first half of the author's life. It's 1926-27; he has published poems, short stories and a couple of novels. Honestly, his earliest work does not interest me; I'm just a casual reader, certainly not a student.

"Soldier's Pay"? I tried: meh. "Mosquitoes"? Good Grief, no. 

But Faulkner was an astute observer, acute, even. All his life, he would move about his little hometown, Oxford, MS, watching people. Oblivious to his surroundings, with stories and scenes taking shape in his head.  He made up stories, he wrote poems, he assembled small books of these for his friends, he was a talented artist.  He knew everybody there was to know in that small Southern town; he had worked as postmaster for the Ol' Miss post office. He knew the people in the towns of the surrounding area--white, black, rich, poor, good and bad. He knew them or he knew of them.

Suddenly, in the mid-1920's he found his voice; he realized that his little "post stamp" of territory of rich with more stories than he could write in his entire life!  He virtually "pulled his great-grandfather from the grave" (he was a writer too) and examined his life. Result: "Sartoris" (which I have read and liked). 

He was very near to the invention of the legendary locality; and his head was full of his most iconic characters: The Snopes Family.  Shelby Foote said that Faulkner's smartest and genius move was that "he named those people Snopes". 

What struck my attention: What Must the Upper-Crust of little Oxford have thought? The lawyers, the business owners, the better-off farmers? They knew Bill Faulkner and they knew he knew them. And he was using the people he knew best as Main Characters in his novels (which were beginning to sell). His own wife, his close family, extended family, his beloved childhood Nanny, anybody he happened to notice around the Square of the town; all were fodder. He was just getting started.        They must have cringed at bit--and started being extra nice to Bill and the Faulkner family??

Passing the time in Quarantine: reading and writing.

Family History Play #4--Love in the Time of Spanish Flu--1918--Another Pandemic a Century Ago

My Mother's Parents a Century Ago

After WW1, as we know, the entire world was ravished by an influenza pandemic, worse than the one we have now, since the world was recovering from a huge war, the people were weak, economies wrecked, medical science was very young compared to the current time (there was no medical support for very sick patients, no anti-bacterials, no drug therapies.) People died in the millions, all over the world.

Even in the small towns and cities in the heart of America. My Grandparents were an engaged couple: he was a young physician and she was just about to graduate from a young ladies' college in the spring of 1919--then they would be married.

In the photo, they are probably a bit older--maybe mid-twenties?

Anyway, he (being a doctor) understood there was a serious risk of contagion, illness and even death for her to remain in the school. Also, he may have been keen to get their life together started, established.  He was able to persuade her and her family for her to leave school and marry in late December, just about Christmas, of that year.  This way, he could quarantine her at his house!  

I always wondered why they married so near to Christmas. I never talked to my Grandmother about this; she passed away in 1971. But years later my Mother related the story. And it turned out that after all the years passed and he was already gone, she told Mother that she somewhat regretted not finishing her college (even though I think it was just a "light" liberal arts study, with social deportment, sewing, cooking and so on.) Well, of course she did--so she saw that all her girls finished college! And she was a life-long reader with an appreciation of art, literature, music, the domestic arts and all of that. She never worked outside the home in her life.

After my own Mother passed away in 1999, I got in touch with my Grandmother's baby half-sister, in her 80's by that time. She shared a sweet little memory (and a little scary, too): when the young couple, my Grandparents, went to the City Hall to obtain a marriage license in that cold winter of 1918, she about about 4. For whatever reason, they took her with them on the errand downtown, riding in his car--probably a Model T or similar.  As they were driving, the little girl fell out of the car onto the pavement in traffic! (The world had no idea about baby seats or seat belts at that time). She was an intrepid little person all her life, modern--so she "bounced", she laughed about it as she told me the story.  

Could they have waited and married later in 1919? Sure. Probably, she would not have gotten the flu, but who knows? What I do know: I wouldn't be here today if they had waited. Not my Mother or our entire branch of the family--since Mom was born in October of 1919. So, here's another of those cases you learn about in Family History Play: someone changes a plan, goes one way, not another---somewhere in some alternative universe or dimension maybe there is a place for results of all those "what if's", dead children, sudden world events that make us do something different???

Family History Play--Part 3 "Life and Times of a Lady"

I know I could have edited this photos with more care.  Not today... 
These are photos--part of those found by my cousin on the family home place farm--of various family member; we are in process of identifying. 

The small portrait of the little girl above is that of one of my 2nd Great Grandmothers--neighbor to the 2nd G-GM on a recent post. Apparently, she always wore her hair in the same style, pulled back.

Look at the size of her hands, even as a little child; about 1850.  And see that ring on her finger? I still have that ring, in the lock box, at the bank.  She gave it, inscribed, to her Grandson, my Grandfather--and somehow it got down to me.

Above, she stands for a photo, perhaps around the time she was married? She was a girl in her mid-teens during the Civil War on a farm in a state which had few big battles, but lots of military activity and looting by both armies. She lost a good riding horse that way, so the story goes.

Look at her hands...though she was a "lady" she worked hard in her home. A female cousin of mine--who is a professional potter--inherited hands like that. Lucky for her.    I have tiny hands, inherited from the other side of the family. They are not useful for much, I wish they were.

The gentleman shown above--one of my 2nd G-GF's--was born and grew up on the Family Home Place Farm (where we still have cousins). About 1867, he married the lady shown above. He was about 30 and she was 17. In today's world, the age difference would be troubling, but in their world it was about perfect: he was old enough, mature, able to provide for a family; she was young enough to have the long line-up of children favored in those times. His family descended from solid English gentry and even some nobility in the Middle Ages.

Get ready to weep. The little boy above was most likely their first experience with parenthood; he did not live much past his 3rd year. His little grave can be seen beside his parents' to this very day. And yes, we know his name: the next little boy born to this family group was named in his honor--my Grandfather, born 1895 to his sister who never knew him.     

Had this little fellow lived, our family history would have been quite different: he likely would have grown up to inherit and work our Home Place Farm. His little sister would have probably left the farm when she married. She might not have married the man who became my Great-Grandfather, but someone else. Which means, the current family profile would be completely different.

Time after time, in Family History Play, I find situations like this: someone is born or someone dies, someone turns one way or another? Everything changes.

So, here is the child who survived--a very pretty little girl who resembled the photo of the little boy.
I can see resemblances to current family members. I'm sure her grieving parents guarded this little girl carefully.

She turned out to be an "only child"- unusual in the late 19th Century. Her parents never had another child; I have found not evidence that they lost any other children.

Look at that pretty child. She always was a lovely girl, woman, lady. She was artistic--see how she drew a smiley face on her fan in the photo above? The family still has examples of her creativity. They sent her to the Sayre School in Lexington, where she boarded in town.  The present day Sayre School is more costly than many universities.

Her father passed away in 1899; her mother wore long black mourning dresses until she passed away in 1932--my own Mother had clear memories of that.

So Far, All is Calm, Everyone Safe---Hope You Are Too.

Family History Play-Chapter 2-Between Two Centuries, Born in Sicily, Lived and Died in Chicago

Her name was Bernadette; I know her last name but "history is personal".  She is not a direct ancestor, but a Great-Aunt.

Here is how the story goes: my Grandfather (Father's Father) was the youngest in a long line of probably adorable Sicilian children near the town of Termini-Immerse; he was born in 1885. Soon after, some of the family decided to make the move to America. Many Sicilian people from this region settled in Chicago; our family may have had friends and relations already here at that time.

Specifically, my toddler Grandfather's already grown and married sister--Bernadette, here--and her husband and maybe some kids? I don't know if his elderly parents made the trip. I don't know if both were alive. But somehow, someone or everyone thought it would be a good idea to take little Salvatore along to America. His parents were old--who was going to care for him? Other siblings? Why leave him in poor Sicily?

They arrived before Ellis Island processed immigrants. They arrived before the 1890 Census (the lost Census: burned in a fire) So it is difficult to track the family until the 1900 Census.

Did the parents come to America? Someone in the family said there is record of an unmarked grave of an elderly "Anna", somewhere in a cemetery in the western suburbs of Chicago. I have heard there was a cholera infestation in Chicago in the 1890's that killed the parents?

How many thousands of immigrants have experienced events like this? Handing off your last, toddler son to his older sister to take and raise in a distant land--a cold land? I have no idea who these extended generations of Sicilian people were; likely I never will.

Dad always assumed his Father was Italian; but when I learned that Sicily is a kind of "pan-Mediterranean/North African" island, I bought Dad an early DNA test several years before he passed away. It turned out that his paternal DNA had many geographic "clusters" on the map of Spain, around Santander. He was shocked and a little affronted to learn of these Spanish ties. Spain controlled Sicily for centuries--with military forces.

So for now, Bernadette is the "dead end" or "wall" that I have hit on this branch of the family. Most we can trace: I have two other mysterious dead ends: both on my Mother's side. Other stories for other nights.

Another Non-fiction Book Read: "Catherine de Medici" by Leonie Frieda

The mother-in-law of Mary Queen of Scots, portrayed well by Megan Follows in the TV series Reign, a romantic fantasy of the teenage years of Mary when she lived in France as well as later when she returned to Scotland. I didn't follow the series through to the conclusion.

The presentation of Catherine was superficially accurate, surprisingly.

This biography was thorough, well researched, with a useful index, scholarly---but it read like a thriller novel. Or maybe it was that the times in which this Queen of France lived were very exciting!

She was an orphan, poor little very rich girl, sponsored by a Pope. She was imprisoned in Florence during her childhood (at times in real danger). She owed her existence to King Francis I, who arranged her (soon to be dead) parents' marriage. He assented to her marriage to his son, Henri (a younger son who became King when his brother died.)  Henri was also held captive by the Holy Roman Emperor when he was a little child--a hostage.

She was not a Royal, came from Italy (the connection to Italy I seem to enjoy), was not beautiful in the eyes of the French (though she was very athletic), innovation (she introduced a proper side-saddle to the French Court so ladies could ride horses more safely and skillfully) she was a book collector and a collector of art, she encouraged architecture (though few of her projects survive).

Henri, of course, had a mistress when he married Catherine. Catherine was shunned by all. But she stayed patiently quiet, hung around the offices of her father-in-law, Francis, while the rest of them partied. She learned states craft as best she could.

Eventually Francis died, Henri became King, Catherine had 10 mostly sickly children and Henri's mistress ruled the roost. Then Henri was killed in a jousting accident--a horrible death with a shard of wood in his eye and brain. Young Francis and his wife Mary were young teenagers, just like in the TV show. Catherine had to direct them until very soon Francis died. Mary was sent back to Scotland to run amuck.

It goes on like this for Catherine for decades. She had to keep the country together for the sake of keeping whichever sickly son was next, on the throne.  She actually did have a "flying squadron" of dozens of beauties who would do her bidding as spies, etc. She believed in the occult; knew
Nostradamas. A low point was her rule in the massacre of about 30,000 French citizens (St. Bartholomew Massacre); only meant to kill a few Protestant leaders, but it got out of hand.

Amazing, horrible times. Who could have managed to do as well under her circumstances. Hard to say.  Good book, though.