Robert William Vonnoh: Spring in France (1890)

Stories That Might Never Manage To Be Completely Told
Writing history seems very similar to writing fantasy. The writer must focus on coherence and continuity in both genres, for every story demands these. Nobody ever foresees what any story will demand of them. Research always proves wanting. I've been pouring through papers I have been collecting for decades, stumbling upon fresh details, and choosing which might fit into these stories, for no history scales to one inch equals one-inch granularity, and their continuity ultimately relies upon omissions. Complete histories must prove to be utter confusion; ditto with complete fantasies. Infinite effort might eventually prove the most satisfying. John Cage insisted that silence serves as the soul of all music. Mattisse allocated white spaces on his later canvasses. My progeny might easily use my history as a departure point to create some related, perhaps even more pleasing installments, for history seems alive and ever-growing. The actors eventually depart, but they leave behind their more resilient parts, stories that might never manage to be completely told.

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Weekly Writing Summary

This Fambly Story begins the actual telling of stories from my family's history. I start with the Parkers because they would play prominently in the first arrival of relatives in The Walla Walla Valley. We'll start several decades before that event to introduce probably the most famous person anywhere on my Fambly tree: *Parker This story proved to be this period's most popular!

Cynthia Ann Parker, or Narua (Was Found),
and daughter, Topsannah (Prairie Flower), in 1861

" … I carry some of their life lessons within me …"
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This Fambly Story considers the difficulties writing histories entails. I feel many temptations to describe my forebears' lives in more glowing terms than they probably deserve: Perils

Hermann Vogel: Alexander in peril of his life (1885)

" … what it must have meant … "
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This Fambly Story traces the economic history of my family across five centuries on this continent: PilGrimEconomics

Postcard: Landing of the Pilgrims, Plymouth, Mass. (1898 - 1931)

"Their future insisted upon first routing them through their distant past."
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This Fambly Story outlines the life of my third great-grandfather, Nathaniel Parker Jackson: Jackson

Sidney E. Morse:  Iowa (1842 - 1845)
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division New York Public Library

" … only a little more than one-sixty-fourth of my DNA."
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This Fambly Story introduces the longest thread in my genealogical tapestry, The Swift Family, and its most noteworthy member, Flower Swift, another fifth great-grandfather: Flower

Flower Swift, a fifth Great-grandfather (artist unknown) circa 1810

"The Revolutionary War was brewing … "
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This Fambly Story describes my fifth great-grandfather's Quaker Militia Unit and outlines their primary responsibilities during The Revolution: Militia

Stefano Della Bella: Virginia (17th century)

"Eye for an eye justice ruled the rough Western edge of our emerging nation."
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I found this first whole writing week of this Fambly Series and this Spring enormously satisfying. Finally, laying down my family's story coherently resolves several obligations. I feared that I might never get around to starting this work, thinking it too daunting. Once in, though, the writing seemed almost to do itself, for I'd held so many stories gestating for so long that they emerged in nearly finished form. I'd fussed over how I might sequence these stories for any history amounts to a collection of convergences. In any convergence, many simultaneous events occur early. As the merging nears, fewer threads fight for presentation, but mere sequence might not best represent the overall flow. I chose to follow threads instead, families flowing through time. No actual merging could occur until the entity to be merged gets introduced. The result might seem disjointed as I hop between pioneer Iowa and pre-revolutionary Virginia. Still, any stricter focus on pure sequence risked forfeiting story pieces or forcing the reader to hop across space rather than time. I suspected the former might prove less satisfying than the latter, so I chose to skip across time. Family names slowly became more familiar, and I introduced the Parkers and Perils, the Pilgrims and Jacksons, Flower and his Quaker Militia. Thank you for following along!

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Fambly, #PureSchmaltz