my family tree is me

I have an overdue paper I desperately need to finish writing for my philosophy class (PHI191, aka "Ethics and Value Theory," aka the class I'm only taking because they say medical schools want to see it on applicants' transcripts), so naturally now is the perfect time for me to make a post on the ol' blog. Actually, I'm treating this as sort of a "pensieve" kind of thing, like in the Harry Potter books - a place to dump a few stray thoughts for a while so I can get them off my mind for right now.

So I think I mentioned wanting to go on about genealogy and my family a bit. I got a chance to talk to my cousin Amy not too long ago (this is my cousin Amy G., on my dad's side of the family, who is like, 50 and married and a retired Naval Intelligence officer, as opposed to my cousin Amy Y., on my mom's side of the family, who is 11. Ah yes, my family: two cousin Amys, and two Uncle Roberts - and unlike the Amys, the Uncle Roberts are both on my mom's side of the fam. Confused yet?). She is very into tracing our family tree as far back as she can, which I think is way cool, and which I'd love to get into if I had more spare time. We are related through our grandmothers, who were sisters, so Amy has traced that part of our common family - the Eichelbergers and the Buntings. Apparently, if you go back far enough, we're related to Charlemagne (heh). But the really interesting bit for me is how far back you can trace our family on this continent. It's the Bunting part of the family that stretches back to 1608 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The first relative of ours to come over from England was a boy (13 or 14 years old!) named Thomas Savage, sent by his family to earn his fortune in the New World. He came with Christopher Newport (of Christopher Newport University fame, among other things), who, shortly after landing here, passed off young Thomas as his own son in a hostage trade deal with the local Indian tribe. Thomas lived with the Indians for a while, and even learned their language. He's referred to in some later documents, toward the end of his life, as "Ancient" Thomas Savage, to indicate how long (relatively speaking) he'd been settled here. You can Google that and see what I mean.

Apparently we've also got some wacky, colorful characters in our family tree. While you're Googling, check out Col. Edmund Scarburgh. He was staunchly loyal to the monarchy during the time of the whole Charles I-Charles II-Oliver Cromwell hoo-ha (I know there's a term for that period, but it's just in that period where my English history gets a little murky, because I never entirely got what was going on then with the Roundheads and rebellion and the monarchs in hiding, and really, it just seemed like they were all trying to be Dutch at that point anyway, having their portraits painted by van Dyck and getting Rubens to paint their ceilings and all), so he clashed with the Commonwealth-sponsored Virginia Colonial Government until Charles II came to the throne. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses and Surveyor-General of the Colony, and Amy tells me he's sort-of indirectly responsible (somehow - I didn't really get all the details) for Bacon's Rebellion. He wasn't really a nice guy, what with the slaughtering of Native Americans and expeditions against the Quakers and whatnot - but it's fascinating to me that people I'm related to were actually in on all those things I vaguely remember from history class.

There are a few areas of the country where history is just inescapable, and Hampton Roads is like that (they dragged us to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and the Adam Thoroughgood House tons of times when I was in grade school, and I grew up within walking distance of the Lynnhaven House and Old Donation Church). It's just neat to realize I have a more personal connection to those obscure places and events of hundreds of years ago. Dude - I've got 5 members of the House of Burgesses in my family. That means I can join organizations like First Families of Virginia or the Colonial Dames (or rather, I could join them if someone would invite me to - the FFV especially is kinda snooty, from what I hear). I'm eligible to join the DAR! Hee.

The kicker for all this, to me, is that this is all my dad's side of the family - on my mom's side of the family, I'm the first generation born here (well, unless you count one of my Uncle Roberts, my mom's younger brother, as Mom's generation - they're so far apart in age, tho' - 15 years - that I really don't). My mom was born in China - she's a naturalized U.S. citizen. God bless America, eh? Where the heck else could you end up with a family like mine?

So while Amy has done the research on the Eichelberger/Bunting part of the family, which we share, no one (to my knowledge) has yet done my grandfather's side of the family, the Williamsons. I know that my great-grandparents were both from tiny neighboring towns in Scotland, but they never met until they both came to the U.S. and joined a club for Scottish immigrants in New York City. My great-grandfather James came to America on February 16, 1909 from Tillicoultry, Clachmannanshire, Scotland (it's across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh). My great-great-grandfather, William, owned a shoe cobblery in Tillicoultry which is now a bakery (I visited there with my grandmother and my mom the summer before I spent a semester in London), and he once won the Tillicoultry bowling championship. My great-grandmother, Anne, was from a nearby town called Alloa (I think). That's about all I know about that part of my family. So I want, someday, to head over to Scotland and start digging around and see what more I can find. Oh, someday...

And then there's Mom's side of the family. Both my grandparents had tons of siblings, most of whom are still back in China, I guess. I have no idea how to even begin to trace them, since both my grandparents have died, and I don't speak or read Chinese, really, and, I mean, dang. I just have no idea. Even besides the language barrier, the cultural divide makes the idea of trying to trace my genealogy in China seem hopelessly daunting. Here's about all I know about that side of my family: my mom was born in Xi'an, Shanxi province; my grandmother was from Hubei province; my grandfather was from Chekiang province and graduated from Chiao T'ung Ta Hsueh, which is apparently a very prestigious university; his father, my great-grandfather, was a general in the Chinese army and had two (!) wives. My relatives in England are all descended from my grandfather's half-brother, the only one of his siblings I ever met: my Uncle Liang (who totally looked just like a Chinese Col. Sanders, and who has, sadly, also passed away). My favorite thing about my cousins in England is that there are two boys out there who are only 1/4 Chinese and who don't look anything but full-on caucasian British, but who have the surname Yeh (which, if you're wondering, means "leaf" in Chinese). Hee. I so love my family.

Ok, well. I think I've killed enough time with this post now. I've got some philosophizing to do. Oh, but before I go I should note a couple genealogical resources Amy pointed out to me: Cyndi's List, which is a huge compendium of how-to's and links to genealogy resources; and Genealogy & Historie of the Eastern Shore, aka GHOTES, which has neat things like a virtual cemetery (with some pictures submitted by Amy!) and stories about the Eastern Shore. Whoo, family trees!