Introduction
My
growing-up years included many interactions with my uncles and aunts. My father
had one sister, my mother had two brothers and two sisters. Each of them
married once, stayed with that spouse for the rest of their lives, and we had
many cousins. Naturally, the amount of interaction we had with each varied with
distance – we were closest to the ones just down the street, a little less
close to the ones across town, and least close to the one across the country.
But even the most distant physically was still “part of the family.”
But
this story is about the connections to the next level up the genealogy tree –
our relationships with the siblings of my grandparents and their families. As
we shall see, there are many more complications. Because of these
complications, I’m going to explore this topic one grandparent at a time. Then
once everything is unraveled, I’ll discuss the four great-aunts remaining in a
concluding section.
My mother’s father
My
mother’s father, Harold Pierpont, was the youngest of eight children. One of
them had died at the age of three and before my grandfather was born, so he had
six brothers and one sister when he was born. However, his mother died when he
was only two weeks old due to complications from childbirth. I’m not sure how
much was due to his father resenting him because of this, or whether his father
did not feel able to raise a small child (the next youngest being age five),
but at any rate, my grandfather was sent to the next town to be raised by some
older relatives. Even though it was only a few miles away, those were the days
before most people had access to an automobile, so it might just as well have
been on the other side of the state.
Because
of this, my grandfather was essentially raised as an only child, with no
contact with his siblings. Later, after he was married, he moved back to the
same area and some of his older siblings lived in nearby houses, there was
still little contact. From my perspective, although we visited with our
grandparents frequently, I did not even know who his siblings were and if you
asked me to name them today I’d have to refer to a genealogy chart. So while I
have several biological great uncles and aunts from this part of the family,
for all practical purposes I have none.
My mother’s mother
My
mother’s mother, Sarah [Blackman] Pierpont, was one of three children. She had
an older brother and a younger sister. While my mother had a relationship with
both her uncle and aunt when she was younger, her uncle Stan[ley] made some
life choices that severed his relationship with the rest of the family.
In
early 1931, having separated from his wife and their two children (ages 16 and
7), Uncle Stan drove across the country to Las Vegas, taking his new love
interest and her two small children with him. For 1931, this was a tremendously
long trip. After establishing “residency”, he divorced his first wife and
re-married (both on the same day), then drove back to Connecticut with his new
wife. This was pretty scandalous and he had few connections with the rest of
his first family from then on. So, while I knew of Uncle Stan, and I had heard
the names of his children (from both marriages), I don’t recall ever meeting
any of them.
My
grandmother’s sister, Edna Blackman, never married and continued to be part of
the family. We’ll meet her again in part three.
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