Secrets &amp; Forgotten Memories

Cheers

February 02, 2008

Secrets & Forgotten Memories

This is a 2pg LO I made for a friend's Circle Journal. The theme was "How my family came to America." Since my family's history is filled with secrets & forgotten memories, I don't know much about how we came here. So I journaled about that.

Journaling on visible block:
How do you relay a story that no one wants to tell? That is the predicament I find myself in as I try to tell my family's story. My family history is full of secrets and forgotten memories. It's sad, really. I know very little about where my family came from, where they've been or even who they were. As a child, I was taught that family is everything. As a Southerner, I was taught that the past is never gone. As a scrapbooker, I have become our family "historian" and am determined to give my grandchildren the past the would not have known otherwise.
Here, I will tell the little I know of how my family came to America. I will also share the reasons that the story is so incomplete. And I vow, this day, that the history I am creating with my husband and children will not be a forgotten memory. It will be recorded for future generations so that they may know us and thereby, know themselves.

Hidden Journaling on left page:
My grandfather, George Thompson, was born in Florida we believe. He was one of seven children. He and his siblings lived in an orphanage. We don't know what happened to his parents. The children were very badly treated in the orphanage and decided to run away. They all changed their names to "George" and went their seperate ways.
As my grandfather was only seven years old when this happened, he had very little memory of his brothers. Years later, he found another George Thompson in Florida and contacted him. The family resemblance was astounding. This was the only brother he ever found. In the picture, my grandfather is standing hand his brother is seated. See the resemblance?
Sadly, this is all we know of his family and their history.

Hidden journaling on right page:
Frank Geitz was born in Germany. I don't know where in Germany, or the date.
As a small child, he travelled to America with his aunt. His parents did not travel with him. I don't know why they chose to remain in Germany.
Frank lived with his aunt in Elizabeth, NJ until he was old enough to live on his own. He lived in Elizabeth, NJ his entire life.
Frank married my grandmother, Nettie Smith, while in the process of earning his detective badge. They had two children together, Judy (my mom) and Marie.
Shortly after the birth of their second child, Frank & Nettie divorced. Apparently, it was a nasty divorce because my grandmother still refuses to speak about him. My mother has no memory of him. She met him briefly when she was 13 and again when she graduated high school. He never re-married and had no other children.
Sadly, this is all I know about Frank.

*note* the reason my Grandfather & his siblings all changed their names to George was so that they would all remember what name to look for when they looked for each other again. Pretty smart for little kids, huh?