A Girl with a Past

                           Girlfromthepast

When my ancestors traveled from Portugal to the Azores Islands during the thirteen century,  I was with them.  I stood under their skin,  living within their cells,  intertwined within their spirit.  Their sense of wonder and awe, beats steady within my heart.

When my Grandmother was a young girl she lived in the Azores when she stepped outside her front door she saw the ocean.  I saw the horizon through her eyes,  the sense of adventure is what remains deep within me. 

When my Dad rode his motorcycle for the first time experiencing freedom as a young boy roaring through the countryside,  it is his voice that echos enormously in my soul, YES!

And when my Mother jitter-bugged with her sisters on the dance floor I felt the beat from their rhythm,  moving me to kick up my heel and twirl in the light of the moon.

We are connected past, present, and future.  May our evolution stem from love and peace.  Where do you come from?

Photo:  A vintage calendar that hangs in my Godmother’s house.



Comments

55 responses to “A Girl with a Past”

  1. Interesting that you view yourself as being in your ancestors’ skins while I dream that my ancestors are in mine. My Mama was of French Canadian (and before that, Paris) descent. My father was English and Native American. My great great grandfather was a general who fought for the south in the Civil War. A maternal great great uncle was a fur trapper in Canada. Sometimes I hear bugles, most times I yearn for the outdoors. They live in me still, those ancestors of mine. I like that you lived in yours.

  2. My Grandmother and her family arrived from Budapest and made a life here in Canada………
    We are all connected heart to heart!
    I love your postings!
    I love you!

  3. I come from vikings, setting sail for new horizons.

  4. Beautiful calendar . And wonderful post as always.
    Hope you will feel better pretty soon

  5. Corey,
    The real answer is Ireland and Germany. Though I can’t trace any of my ancestry back there…my heart is firmly planted in Italy. Maybe in a former life…I was Italian?

  6. On my mother’s side, I am second generation American. My grandmother is Lithuanian and my grandfather was Polish and German (his father was from Germany).
    On my father’s side, we are mostly Irish. I’ve heard all sorts of stories about Great Great Great grandfather James who threw a man off of his trolley for causing problems with a woman. The trolley was still moving, btw.

  7. I LOVE the way you have written this!
    One of my ancestors was a convict, sent to Australia from England for stealing cloth to make diapers for her baby!

  8. what a thought-provoking post…
    i am from france via several centuries, some time in england, australia & finally the US, but i feel such a pull to italy that i am certain there is something in my DNA leading me there 🙂

  9. I love that you feel that way! My great,great grandfather, Bailey Anderson, took part in the Siege of Bexar in 1835, when they forced the Mexican army out of San Antonio. Most of those men, including him, then went home for the winter. A few months later, Santa Ana returned with the army and the Alamo fell. When I go to San Antonio, I can stand in front of the Alamo, just drinking it in for an hour. My eyes well up. I think my soul is connected to that place.
    His own father, also named Bailey, was one of the veterans of the American Revolution who settled in Texas. His mother drowned after falling off the raft they were travelling on down the Mississippi River on their way here to Texas. They only found her because she was wearing a red dress and they buried her in a hollowed out log on the bank of that river.
    Bailey, Sr’s own father, John Anderson, stowed away on a ship from Glasgow, Scotland, at the age of 12 – probably in the 1740’s – and landed in South Carolina. He was killed in action in 1780 in the American Revolution.
    Our blood helped build this place.

  10. English and Irish. Have traced all the way back to Lady Godiva.

  11. we must be on the same wavelength…i wrote today about all the layers of my life stacked like alter stones…yes, i vibrate with the stirrings of ancestors who breathed life into my soul…thank you for bringing me along…blessings, rebecca

  12. Paris Parfait

    Lovely piece, Corey. For me, family ancestors came from England, although a touch of Cherokee blood was later added to the mix. And I feel a strong pull to the Middle East and Spain (and my daughter is half-Jordanian); perhaps that’s experiences from another lifetime calling…

  13. English and French! I could have guessed it from my dreams and my tastes if I hadn’t learned it on the www 🙂
    Good post Corey!

  14. I’m Italian. Thank you mom. And Swede/German from my dad.
    My brother and sister inherited the tall and imposing dad-line. Lucky them.
    I’m the round Italian woman. Luck me, too.

  15. Corey! What great timing! I partially answered this question today over at my place. Love the photo and connected thoughts 🙂

  16. I want to THANK your family for having YOU!
    to remind us of so, so much! 🙂

  17. Back to the days of the pyramids for me with splashes of Italy, Germany and Syria. Who would have thought we would all end up in Australia.

  18. 5 generations ago, my great-great-great-great grandfather sailed to America from England. On the ship ride across he met and fell in love with a German lady. They made their home in the mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee. Their children met and married the mountain folk that populated the area…a melting pot of Cherokee, Irish and Scottish people.
    So I’m English, German, Irish and Cherokee. At 5’10” I have the tall stature of my English heritage, the roundness of my German grandmother, the small hands of my Cherokee ancestors, the soul of an Irish woman, and the heart of them all…

  19. I’ve often wondered if this kind of connection with our predecessors and ancestors is acutally implanted in our genetic memory. How else could you explain these intense connections?
    My father’s people are Swedish and their traditions constantly sneak into my consciousness, especially in the kitchen. My mother’s people were a Northern European mix along with Cherokee. I feel what her ancestors must have felt stepping foot in America in the 1590s. Yup! And as for the Cherokee, somewhere I feel my great, great grandmother in my heart beat – how its rhythym connects with Mother Earth.
    Great post Corey!

  20. I love this post Corey! You have such special kind of intelligence, like a spiritual one.
    I have had this feeling as well about ancestors and also in the present: when my eyes are filled with wonderful images of special places I feel the ones I love see them somehow

  21. Very touching Corey. What about sound and smell memories? With me it is the sound of Grandma’s knitting needles as she made beautiful Norwegian sweaters. Dad sawing cedar in his workshop, the smell of the cement when he hosed down the driveway every Saturday. The smell of the Grumbacher oil paints when he was painting a canvas. The sound of Mom “in the pan cupboard” on Saturday mornings, trying to find the pancake skillet, her laugh-which is contagious and the smell of the Tigress cologne she wore when going out for the evening. Aunty’s house smelling of an odd combination of PineSol, Ivory soap and fresh baked bread and the feeling of welcome and love when she answers the door. What did our parents and grandparents recall of their parents and family memories?

  22. oh Corey this brings tears to my eyes. I got chills reading it. What love,and tenderness express truly from the heart. Your words are so moving. This weekend my mom, Rene and I found a missing link to our heritage. An most incredible, amazing story,your godmother will share with you. Love you

  23. Hi Corey,
    I’ve been away for a while so I have lots of Tongue in Cheek posts to catch up on reading. I like your new bog look along with the new categories. And I just LOVE your photographs! They are sooooo beautiful! The image of the rosary on top of the illustration of the girls holding the garland and the boy trying to ignore them is especially lovely.Have you thought of sending a portfolio of your prints to magazines? Not sure if that would interest you but I bet your photos would peak the interest of several editors. Anyway, just a thought…
    And you’ve traced your people back to the thirteenth century? Wow! When did you ancestors arrive to the States? Being adopted, I have several family trees. I’ve often pictured those trees lined up along the edge of a path with their branches intertwined. Some branches are broken while others are flourishing with leaves and nests and a couple of nuts!

  24. This is so beautiful and moving.
    I’ve always wanted to visit the Azores for a (northern hemisphere) winter vacation. If you ever feel like writing about the Azores I’d be so interested to read it.

  25. This is beautiful. The sense of connection to those who were before us is powerful.

  26. I am catching up with you here. Many are writing of family ties, history, herstory…
    I come from eastern European heritage and having recently lost my last grandmother feel it ever so important to feel the stories.

  27. i’m just catching up here too…i could hang out all day and just admire your beautiful photographs.
    such a moving and visual post…
    all of my grandparents came to the US from Sweden…i have only the memorary of my father’s mother Beda as she sat in our breakfast nook dipping her hard toast into bitter coffee…i sat and admired her unusual ways and her charming accent. it was she who got me started in needlework. 🙂

  28. Corey,
    I got the goose bumps reading that post.
    Wow!
    Rosemary
    Thanks for visiting my blog!

  29. following the steps of ancestors claims our very own history and being. reading the different comments is so fascinating, the movement of many europeans into the new world. like yours, my family roots can be traced back to the 13th.century. you never guess corey, into the south of france (provence and languedoc) during the times of the templers and cathares…;)
    beautiful post and your grandma’s kitchen seems to inspire…

  30. When my father died I knew he would live on through all of us and everytime I look at my son I see my dad. You are so right and you put this into words most beautifully. Thank you Corey.

  31. Yes, we really are connected, all the way down the tunnel of time.

  32. This is so you. And I love the new look. Pleasant, chic and readable.

  33. I myself feel like a short little goldne haired french woman from Bordeaux… My great-aunts and great-grandfather traveled to America as teens… Why did they leave France? I will never ever know… The other side came from Spain and a few others from Mexico city….And they all plunked me down, in Arizona. Sheesh. hee hee…

  34. Such sweet words of dedication and love for your family! You know of my uncle’s roots to the Azores (I think he was the only son born here in the US — he was the baby of the family… his siblings and parents all immigrated from the Azores).

  35. I’m English/Irish and even though I don’t know of any ancestors travels…the whens or wheres….I feel a pull to England and Ireland. The weather, the people…. Some day…I hope 🙂

  36. Again, your words move me…and my heart skips a beat! You just always say the most lovely things. I love to read your posts for their inspiration and thought provoking words. You show us the connection of past and future! Thank you!

  37. I love where you are from.
    I am from the same.
    Cellular memory, buried deep within. Other future selves are longing to get out, they speak to me with their wisdom. I shall see the future through their eyes.
    xo
    Blue
    (I am half Portuguese! My father was born on Madeira Island)

  38. Corey, you are just an awesome writer! I love the way you play with words. What a surprise to see that particular calendar, my Irish Grandmother was born Jan 23rd, 1902!

  39. I am Comanche Indian on my mother’s side….her maiden name means “angry one”…that always made me laugh for some reason.

  40. What wonderful thoughts Corey. I love to garden and spend time outside (when it’s not too hot!) and find peace sitting near the sounds of a running river…do I need to mention that my ancestors were mountain men?
    But when I think of where I came from, me the way I am today, I always think of my parents. They made me, just as I am.

  41. In the words of Walt Whitman,”We Are But The Sum Of Our Ancestors”. Susan

  42. “I stood under their skin, living within their cells, intertwined within their spirit. “—
    This line is such a big idea, Corey. How perfectly you said it, too.
    🙂

  43. Great post Corey! Being adopted I have several sets of ancestors. Before the came to the United States my maternal “birth” grandparents also lived in the Azores, looked out their windows & doors to see the Ocean. My “adoptive” grandparents came from Italy, France & Germany. I have my birth mother’s looks & mannerisms & my birth father’s eyes & hair. I have the values & lifetime of memories of my “adoptive” parents.
    I am also interested in genealogy & have traced their footsteps back quite a ways. I’m deeply connected to all of them.

  44. Beautiful post. And odd, I wrote of my grandmother today too. But not nearly as eloquently. Love, love your writing and your pics! All best, Jan

  45. I don’t know what year my ancestors arrived in the Azores. I know that I have an affinity for hydrangeas, the ocean and beautiful lace which all say Azores to me. My father’s ancestors are from England and have been traced back to the 16th century. How wonderful that you can trace your family so far back.

  46. “I have several family trees. I’ve often pictured those trees lined up along the edge of a path with their branches intertwined. Some branches are broken while others are flourishing with leaves and nests and a couple of nuts!”
    Susanna, my daughter is adopted. I love your comments.
    I am a mixture of French, Welsh, English, Scots, and Spanish/Indian. And, looking at ancestry . . . my mother, who is Mexican, has a “CELTIC” inherited trait. Her second toes are longer than her big toes.
    I think we are we are really a mixture of all humanity.
    ~elaine~

  47. Corey:
    I must agree with Susan.
    I, too have Portuguese ancestry & Dutch & German & ?
    My daughter (she is 32) was asked “What race are you?” when she was about 2. She replied “Human.” Aren’t we all of that?
    I love her for instinctively knowing.
    Peace
    carole

  48. Beautifuly written. I’ve had similar thoughts of my own ancestors as I learn about them in my genealogy research.
    It’s interesting that you posted a few pictures taken at Arles. I recently learned that some of my French ancestors were from there.
    Small world we live in.

  49. All I know is that my Mom and Dad are from the Philippines. I have no idea what other ethnicity we are comprised of…could be Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, maybe all?

  50. Corey, the way you have written this entry makes my mind whirl with possibilities and ideas. I love your words… what a truly beautiful piece. Thank you for sharing the beauty.

  51. Again you stir thoughts in my mind in a way that my brain has never thought before. I have a deep regard for my ancestors, but I have never thought of it in this sense. Thoughts to ponder on today. Thank you!

  52. Yes – we are there with them! Thank you for reminding me…
    When my daughter was pregnant with my first granddaughter, and my mother was still alive, as we all stood together one day, I had a similar thought pop into my head – I thought of us as a set of never-ending nesting dolls – don’t know if that makes any sense here now, but thank you for both bringing that back to me, and for giving me a new image, a chain of DNA, running back, connecting us…

  53. this one made me cry…what a beautiful connection…i will never look at my momma the same way…i now will know that i was with her when she would jump a bus with all of her friends at 16, all wearing white coveralls and with their skates thrown over their shoulders…i can feel the wind as we raced around the rink! xoxo

  54. Ah, an incredible post, Corey. My mind is racing, the sentences won’t form in my fingers, I’ll be thinking this one over for a while.

  55. hello, merci d’être passée sur mon blog. ce calendrier est magnifique, et nous donne la nostalgie des photos anciennes.
    bisous
    pat

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