I’ve been quiet. Mostly because of the reality that most of my online content was sucked into the vortex of Facebook. But, with the rising tragic incidents amoung our youth and the stonewall response from META (who own Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc), I finally deleted my Facebook account for good. I don’t use any other META applications, so that’s all I had to do to distance myself from this monster exploiting children and teens.
So…alas…you’ll see more content from me through my blog/website as you did in the past.
With that said, a story has been brewing in my soul. And, it looks like now is the time to tell it. Here’s a little background…
What started as personal work regarding healing family lines (and my own health), ended up as a new way to approach my clients in my Herbalism practice. Exploring family lines and narratives eventually became a natural part of my work.
Like my own journey with ancestry, supporting clients in this way was a very intuitive process. To be honest, I was shocked at how many people had never been asked what their parents’ health issues were during a standard medical intake. It is absolutely part of my intake form.
Eventually, my mother, knowing my interest in ancestry, suggested that I take a DNA test. I then remembered my Great Aunt Carmen ‘hushing’ me, my mother, and my aunt a few years prior when we asked her about the parents of her mother (my GG grandparents). In a matter-of-fact tone, she said to us, ‘we don’t talk about that.’
It was this wide-eyed moment at being hushed that made me decide to take the autosomal DNA test. Great Aunt Carmen passed away a few years after that and no other sibling was alive to question. However, I was determined to know their story and reclaim that story line in our family system.
I learned important DNA tools like the LEEDS method, DNA triangulation, and utilized databases like GEDmatch. I found people to help me scour public documents and historical records. I followed up with the state archive to find more documents and articles.
Eventually, I learned the outline of my GG grandparents’ story. I learned their names. I visited where they were buried and left them flowers.
Their story began around the time of the Civil War in Alabama and Mississippi. Their story was fragmented like the lands of the Deep South during that time.
Brutalized.
Patched up.
Silent things.
Janisse Ray, a Southern writer from Georgia who wrote ‘Ecology of a Cracker Childhood’ among other works, put out a call for stories about families that were shaken up by their DNA results. I decided to send in this story of my family. It was accepted.
This story will join 28 other personal and moving stories in underscoring the power of DNA in solving family mysteries. If you want to keep tabs on when the book is released, check out this link.
…maybe, just maybe…the stories in this book will inspire you to shed light on family lines of your own that have been forgotten or neglected? I can personally attest to the benefit of acknowledging one’s ancestors and allowing circulation to flow through dormant family lines once again.
Lindsay Kolasa 