1978. I was in fifth grade, and had been assigned to create a family tree. I don't remember which class this was for, or why it had been assigned. I don't even remember if everyone had to do it, though I'm pretty sure they did. What I do remember is not really wanting to do the assignment.
Mom had telephoned her cousin Helen Ezell to get information about our family, as "Aunt Helen" (to my sister and me) was the family geneologist at the time. She spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Helen, and took down a lot of information during their conversation. Then Mom settled in at the dining room table with me - a ten-year-old who would much rather be somewhere else doing something else she considered much more interesting. I may not have been that interested at the beginning, but for some reason something about my 6th great-grandfather piqued my imagination.
Dr. Pierre Chastain was born in France in 1659, and came to what would become the United States in 1701 with his family. He was one of the Huguenot leaders in Virginia, and died there in 1728. This was what I learned that night 35 years ago. I remember Mom seeming to be very proud of this ancestor, and my imagination was piqued by the fact he'd come from France. Maybe I'd never thought of our family as coming from anywhere but perhaps England. Maybe it was the word Huguenot, and looking it up in our World Book encyclopedias in the hallway that interested me for so long. I don't know... but I do know I remembered his name.
About 1997 or 1998, I finally got a computer and naturally wound up online. One late night, ages later, I was bored but couldn't sleep. Sitting in front of my computer, I had a silly thought, and typed "Pierre Chastain" in a search engine. What do you know - at the top of the search was this:
Mom had telephoned her cousin Helen Ezell to get information about our family, as "Aunt Helen" (to my sister and me) was the family geneologist at the time. She spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Helen, and took down a lot of information during their conversation. Then Mom settled in at the dining room table with me - a ten-year-old who would much rather be somewhere else doing something else she considered much more interesting. I may not have been that interested at the beginning, but for some reason something about my 6th great-grandfather piqued my imagination.
Dr. Pierre Chastain was born in France in 1659, and came to what would become the United States in 1701 with his family. He was one of the Huguenot leaders in Virginia, and died there in 1728. This was what I learned that night 35 years ago. I remember Mom seeming to be very proud of this ancestor, and my imagination was piqued by the fact he'd come from France. Maybe I'd never thought of our family as coming from anywhere but perhaps England. Maybe it was the word Huguenot, and looking it up in our World Book encyclopedias in the hallway that interested me for so long. I don't know... but I do know I remembered his name.
About 1997 or 1998, I finally got a computer and naturally wound up online. One late night, ages later, I was bored but couldn't sleep. Sitting in front of my computer, I had a silly thought, and typed "Pierre Chastain" in a search engine. What do you know - at the top of the search was this:
That one night pulled me completely in to learning more about my family's history. Over the years, more and more branches and twigs have been revealed - along with a number of surprising and interesting stories. These adventures of my ancestors are why I've begun this site. Hopefully it will make for some amusing reading, and maybe once or twice it will prove helpful to someone.
