“When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
Who am I? The ubiquitous question driving me to chase my family roots. Is there a Formula to me? Why do I like to sew, to make soap, to write? How do my genes versus my nurture, affect who I am? With the exception of sewing, I was never shown to do these things-- I sought them out. I think it is silly to dismiss our ancestry- we care more about the lineage and breeding of our pets than ourselves, I sometimes believe.
My full name is Jamie Elizabeth Kerr Weinstein. I've always been told that the Kerr name is Scottish (and there's a huge and diverse amount of people in the Kerr clan history) and that the Henderson's (my mom's side) were Irish and Scottish. I never really thought about the rest of the family, my grandmothers' sides. On one side I have the Waltons and on the other side the Forresters. I'd heard family rumors that one of my great-great grandmothers was an "Indian Princess" and that I was related to the Walton family featured on a tv show in the 1970s.
I decided to look for my answers to "Who is my family?", by starting at Ancestry.com (free 2 week trial available, you have to cancel within 10 days!) I could easily trace the Kerr's but I started focusing on the Forrester Family. My grandmother Robbie Forster (last name changed during faulty census taking, as the family was very poor and many couldn't read - Forrester became Forster) was the last child born to her mother in the early 1900s. Medical attention was near obsolete, especially at home births, and my great- grandmother died during childbirth to my grandmother.
My full name is Jamie Elizabeth Kerr Weinstein. I've always been told that the Kerr name is Scottish (and there's a huge and diverse amount of people in the Kerr clan history) and that the Henderson's (my mom's side) were Irish and Scottish. I never really thought about the rest of the family, my grandmothers' sides. On one side I have the Waltons and on the other side the Forresters. I'd heard family rumors that one of my great-great grandmothers was an "Indian Princess" and that I was related to the Walton family featured on a tv show in the 1970s.
I decided to look for my answers to "Who is my family?", by starting at Ancestry.com (free 2 week trial available, you have to cancel within 10 days!) I could easily trace the Kerr's but I started focusing on the Forrester Family. My grandmother Robbie Forster (last name changed during faulty census taking, as the family was very poor and many couldn't read - Forrester became Forster) was the last child born to her mother in the early 1900s. Medical attention was near obsolete, especially at home births, and my great- grandmother died during childbirth to my grandmother.
I started telling my mother about my search for my ancestors and lo and behold, after 33 years, I was given some facts about my family that allowed me to confirm the facts that I was finding online. The "Indian princess" great-grandmother? American Indians didn't have "princesses" but I am thrilled to find some truth in the legend! It was family rumor that she was a physically beautiful woman and my gg-grandfather met her in Virginia where she was part of the Chickahominy tribe. Her name was "Nancy" Mahalie Many Trees, according to family documentation I have found. Her tombstone simply reads, "Wife of Francis, Chickahominy tribe" in Miller Cemetery, Georgia. This is the same cemetery my grandmother, grandfather and aunt are buried, a fact I find somewhat curious as this is a maternal lineage but explained by the fact that my grandfather passed away first, giving my grandmother the choice of burial arrangements.
My gg- grandfather was a founding member of Rising Fawn, a small trading town in Georgia and they settled on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. I did a quick search on google maps to find Miller Cemetery. I was astounded to find a small plot of land with all of the relatives I had been researching. In my mind, the cemetery was huge, based on all of the people I had researched. It is just a small plot of land and I must have looked at every tombstone there online, believing I was searching a plot with numerous families.
The cemetery is just this tiny piece of land with most of my Forester relatives, including "Nancy" Chickahominy Indian woman". I feel such a deep connection to this side of the family I barely know. I believe our genes do dictate who we are. We accept this on a physical level (i.e. gene deficiencies and diseases) but we don't accept this on a spiritual level. I believe in both.
I'm not a scientist or a religious figure but my opinions are just as valid. I cannot explain my innate ways of being. I have an extreme imagination. I have a connection to plants and animals that most people don't. I listen to the wind and I feel a kinship to nature that is grander than that of which I have with humans. My mom brought me some of my packed boxes from childhood and I found a bag of shells and a little American Indian doll from my grandmother that I used to carry around as a child. I was a collector of objects as I child (I still am!) and I'd often carry around items for good luck or comfort. I barely knew my grandmother but there is a connection between us. She felt so strongly about her family's (my family's) heritage that it was her chosen place of burial as well.
The legend of my "Indian Princess" great, great grandmother may have been skewed but the facts support the folklore. I am so intrigued by this part of the country now that I am planning a family vacation there (as funding will permit in the future! -- Positive projection! ). I didn't have the best family growing up, so I've found comfort in the adage, "You can't choose your family but you can choose your friends". Through this journey though, I am beginning to find comfort in the complexity of heritage and our natures.
The legend of my "Indian Princess" great, great grandmother may have been skewed but the facts support the folklore. I am so intrigued by this part of the country now that I am planning a family vacation there (as funding will permit in the future! -- Positive projection! ). I didn't have the best family growing up, so I've found comfort in the adage, "You can't choose your family but you can choose your friends". Through this journey though, I am beginning to find comfort in the complexity of heritage and our natures.
I can't remember much about my grandma Kerr (Forrester surname). I remember she was quiet, opinionated, set in her ways, had lots of perfumes, inexpensive jewelry and trinkets and always had "Chicken in a Biskit" crackers for me in her cupboard. My grandmother died when I was a pre-teen. Maybe I can't go back in time to talk with her but I can learn more about her by researching her choices and seeing the same locations in nature that were so important to her, like Rising Fawn, Georgia.
And so this "Nancy" Chickahominy woman, generations removed from me, is still affecting her (my) family because it is my curiosity in her that led me to finding someone a little closer to me, my grandmother.
What makes us, nature or nurture? I can't answer that as I'm still resolving the answers for myself but I'm happily resolving the nature in me.
And so this "Nancy" Chickahominy woman, generations removed from me, is still affecting her (my) family because it is my curiosity in her that led me to finding someone a little closer to me, my grandmother.
What makes us, nature or nurture? I can't answer that as I'm still resolving the answers for myself but I'm happily resolving the nature in me.
