Family History through Genealogy… by Libby Nelson
To say that genealogy runs in the family sounds more like a bad t-shirt from an ancestry convention than a way to start an article about family history, but in my case, it’s true. Part of the family lore on my mother’s side tells the tale of my grandmother, Eleanore Murray Leutwyler, bedridden with a broken hip, who spent the better part of a year writing away for ancestral records, requesting books from the library and calling historical societies. All this in the early 1970s, long before the digitalization and online accessibility of records made connecting the dots about ancestry as instantly gratifying as so many other things in our culture. She started with her father’s family, the Murrays, and only got far enough to learn that they were originally McMurrays, émigrés from Scotland to Ireland and later to the U.S. There were too many Murrays in Ireland to get reliable data, and so she focused her efforts on her husbands’ family, the Leutwylers. Extensive research connected her to a whole network of Leutwylers scattered around the globe that had all originated from Leutwil, a village of just 750 people in northern Switzerland. When she was back to full health, she and my grandfather traveled to Leutwil to attend the Leutwyler international family reunion, a gathering held once per decade for family members flung far and wide by time and travel.
The stories I have about my grandmother are sadly, second hand. I called her Mimi, but her mind had succumbed to progressive dementia before I was old enough to really know her well. We share the same green eyes, straight hair, dimple on the left cheek and, according to my mom, the same gentle nature. I wear her wedding ring for my own, figuring that the sixty-five years she was married to my grandfather are as good an omen as anyone could hope for. My mom has passed down some stories, but Mimi’s early life is mostly a mystery to me. I know that she was the cherished only daughter of older parents and that she and my grandfather were married for (what in those days was) quite a few years before having a baby of their own. Their infant daughter Claire, named for my great-grandmother, died at barely eight weeks old of a tragic illness that today would have been diagnosed and cured before a newborn left the hospital. Miscarriages in the years to follow led to the adoptions of my uncles, John and Michael and finally, an unexpected pregnancy and a healthy baby, my mom Suzanne.
A few years ago after packing up their home for retirement, my mom came across a fat envelope of photos that hadn’t been opened since the early 1960s. Inside were pictures of Mimi as a young girl growing up in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in Philadelphia. There are pictures of she and my grandfather on dates, swimming at the lake, and on the day of their engagement. There are pictures of beautiful baby Clare, including her flower-filled wake and tiny grave sight. The photos are morbid by today’s standards, but I am grateful for some trace of this little life that effected my grandparents so deeply and informed the path that they would follow for the rest of their lives as a couple and as parents. I had my own journey with the inability to conceive and I was so deeply moved by this connection with my grandmother. Knowing her more fully, even through photographs, has changed me and helped me to put my own experiences in perspective. More importantly, I feel stronger and less alone knowing of the strength and spirit that helped her to move forward with a joy-filled life, despite the heartache she endured.
This feeling of connection has inspired a deeper search into my family history for records, pictures and details of my family’s early life. It motivates me, too, to encourage my parents to record the precious details of their pasts. I want my children and grandchildren to feel their legacy and hear their stories, so that the feeling of connectedness doesn’t end with me, but continues as long as our family tree continues to grow.
Libby Nelson, is the mom of 8-year-old Sam and 6-year-old twins Eli and Jacob.
