Sea Classics

Our recent interest in Family History has me inspired to collect information about my side of the family to share with my children.  Since we now live thousands of miles away from my family, I try and do little things here and there to keep memories alive, because, quite frankly, we can't afford air fare for a family of 6 to just pop back home to visit. Like last  year for Christmas we decorated 25 envelopes I hung from clothespins as an Advent Calendar.  I assigned each envelope to a family member and then stuffed the envelope with pictures and written stories, newspaper clippings, etc. about that family member.  Each day as a countdown to Christmas, my children opened an envelope and learned some Family History. (oh, and there were also candies and crafts in the envelopes too:)

We recently decorated Family Questionnaire booklets to send out to family members back in the states, which I hope to do this weekend. I can't wait to show you the artwork my girls did on the booklet covers, hand decorating each one.

I also do a LOT of storytelling with my children. Often making up magical fiction stories, but also find time to tell family history stories to not only educate my children about their ancestors but also to remind myself of fond memories I have of my own family.

My maiden name is Howard, an English name though the family was in Cajun country coming from Daisy, Louisiana (look it up on map....it's in middle of nowhere near Port Sulphur, Louisiana) before settling in 9th Ward, Louisiana. My mother's maiden name was Lafferty (Irish, settled in Mississippi), her mother's maiden name was Southern (I'm told she came from a Scots-Irish family) and my father's mother's maiden name was Brown (English, from Mandeville, Louisiana area, I'm told were gypsy's who travelled in tents and sold homemade candy until settling in New Orleans), with her mother's maiden name as Thibodeaux (as Cajun as Cajun can be). So if you're reading this and you come from any of those families, holla!

I'll leave you with an interesting article my Dad's brother, my Uncle Ragan Howard, published about my Great-Great-Grandfather Howard, in a magazine called 'Sea Classics'. I recall reading this article in a magazine when I was a teenager, but looks like it was republished back in 2003. I had no idea back then that I would be living so close to all the places my GGGrandfather Howard came from. I've been to a few places mentioned in the article, and hope to make it to a few more. Maybe I'll discover some other interesting family members to wow my children with stories of :)

Uncle Ragan Howard's Article