#52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge - M.T. & Anna

I decided to accept the challenge thrown out to the genealogy community by Amy Johnson Crow from Ancestry.com. Once a week I will blog about an ancestor who has crossed my paper path.


My great-great grandmother M.T. immigrated from Germany in 1882.  She was 25 years old, single, traveling by herself, arriving in the large port of New York City.  


The family tale is that she had worked as a house maid in her home country and became pregnant by the son of her employers. At some point her employers sent their son to America and the plan was for M.T. to travel to America to join him. She delivered her baby, which she left in the care of her brother, and sailed to America. When she arrived in New York City the father was gone. He had sailed back home. Did he back out of the arrangement? Or was it simply a plan to get M.T. out of the picture to avoid the scandal of an illegitimate child? Was there ever a plan to send for the baby? I will never know the answers to those questions.


Truth be told I don't know how much of that passed- down tale is true. What I do know to be true is M.T. did leave behind a baby daughter named Anna in Germany.  M.T. remained in America, married, was mother to seven more children and died at the ripe old age of 89. Many years later M.T.'s second daughter traveled to Germany and met her older half-sister. I am grateful she did. I would hate to think that Anna lived her life feeling forgotten. Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. Maybe there were letters from America. Maybe. But, I'm grateful one relative was able to make that trip and at least meet her face to face. And that black and white photograph of a grown Anna is one of my most prized genealogy treasures.

A lifetime homework assignment

The root of my obsession with genealogy can be traced back to my 7th grade social studies teacher. It was he who assigned the family tree homework my mother thought she'd never hear the end of. And she hasn't. 29 years later I am still working on that family tree.

At 13 I doubt I had given much thought to my heritage. I knew very little & had to rely on my mom to fill in the majority of the blanks. I was fascinated from the beginning.
Three things cemented my new found love.

1) I already enjoyed history and learning about other cultures. Finding out that this family came from Germany or that family from Norway gave me a direct claim to a culture and history of my own.

2) I came from a small family & going back a couple of generations I discovered large families with...gasp....6 children. How fascinating. Perhaps they lived the idyllic life portrayed in one of my favorite programs - The Walton's.

3) And finally, I found in genealogy the element of puzzle solving that I had already learned to love in word puzzles & jigsaw puzzles. Filling in the blanks, connecting the dots....

 So, to my 7th grade social studies teacher-  thank you for the lifetime homework assignment that's been a blast!