Thoughts of Thanksgivings Past

My family's Thanksgiving table, 1953

The house is quiet now.  Our children have returned to their respective homes after a busy and enjoyable Thanksgiving week in Fredericksburg.  

I now sit back with a cup of tea and think about Thanksgivings past. I think about why this holiday is so important that family travel so far in order to be with their loved ones.

Thanksgiving 1953
Taughannock Boulevard Home of Ed and Carol Nunn
From lf: Maude & Merritt Agard, Dick & Beverly Agard, Laura Hardenbrook, Carol & Ed Nunn, Mr. Wheeler
Seated: Mary Nunn, Nancy Agard

My family always gathered the Sunday after. We operated a restaurant so Thanksgiving and Easter were our busiest days. Since Thanksgiving was the last day of the serving season, that Friday and Saturday were dedicated to closing up the large building for the winter.  Consequently it was on Sunday that we finally had time to gather for the traditional Thanksgiving meal in our Taughannock Boulevard home near Ithaca, New York.

Thanksgiving at the Maki's 1993

Raising my own family, we opened our home on Thanksgiving to as many relatives and others who could make it. Cousins, aunts, and uncles came to Newfield, NY from New Mexico, Ohio, and Buffalo.  Our winding driveway brought them over the river and through the woods to our sprawling ranch house that could easily accommodate 30-35 people for Thanksgiving dinner; a new tradition was born.  For many years the Maki clan gathered around our many tables to enjoy delicious food, card games, football, and conversing with each other. 

The Thanksgiving buffet line 1993

Each family brought a dish to share and our long kitchen counter groaned under the number of delicious dishes it held. When the youngsters in the family turned into teenagers, they stayed until all hours playing Axis and Allies, and then returned the next day to continue the game.

Cousins catching up, 1993 

It goes without saying that food is a main ingredient to a successful Thanksgiving. This year we had way too much food, and I realized the reason was that everyone had to prepare the dish that meant the most to them at Thanksgiving.  Since this is important, next year I will suggest we make half the recipe.  

The common thread through these thoughts of Thanksgivings past is sense of community, whether that is immediate family, friends, or gathering at a communal dinner somewhere.  As humans we need a safe haven; we need human interaction. We need “family,” however it is described.  Thanksgiving provides that opportunity.

I pray our growing family will gather here every year and that we can continue to provide them with a safe haven, a Thanksgiving retreat. 

Genealogy Goals for 2012

Since we will be in transition for the first three months this year, I am keeping my genealogy goals list short and hopefully attainable.

Journaling – I’m glad I kept a journal last year; consequently I will continue this habit of documentation.

Tompkins County Rootsweb – I will continue to provide the Tompkins County, New York genealogy website with old photos and typed obits for their scrapbook section.

Hardenbrook Monograph – Yes, darn it, I am going to finish the monograph on the Hardenbrook family of Upstate New York this year.

Nunn Monograph – I began my genealogy journey with the Joseph Nunn family of Germany and New York City. This family has been my nemesis from the start.  Maybe if I concentrate my efforts, I will have some luck knocking down the brick walls.  It was last year at this time I was contacted through my blog by a member of this family – related to the key person, my grandfather’s sister, Elizabeth Nunn Siebert Piepenburg. I was so excited.  I responded to the comment, but never heard from this woman again. What a heartbreak!  

Fredericksburg Genealogy – I will get involved with a local genealogy group here in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Rainy Days Equals Genealogy Organization

I love rainy days!  I love to be inside warmed by a cozy fire and accomplishing all sorts of projects – and, of course, many of those are genealogy related!

One of my genealogy goals for 2011 is to produce a monograph of the Hardenbrook family line. I have a lot of research written up, but it now needs fact checking, photos, and the next step, a deeper level of research, i.e. land and probate records.  I continue to search for the reason as to why they traveled north to Seneca County, NY.  Was it availability of bounty lands, the rumor of available fertile farmland, or some other reason?

It became evident I needed to better organize the research materials I had put into a three-ring research binder. I took everything out and sorted by individual names, and then filed them back into the binder now separated by labeled tab file dividers.  The first page of my binder is the list of local history/genealogy information sheet for Seneca County kindly sent to me by the librarian at the Edith Ford Library in Ovid, New York.  Next are pages of cemetery listings where I found Hardenbrooks and associated families buried.  At the very back of the binder is a tab labeled, “Related Articles,” which contains items that may or may not be relevant. One woman interested in my Hardenbrook research sent me her article on the Dey Family of Bergen County, NJ and Seneca County, NY. At this point I don’t think there is a link, but one never knows.  I do appreciate her suggestions and interest.

This reorganization project provided me the opportunity to revisit much of the research I had done over the past few years, and can now view from a different perspective. It also allows me to fact check easier – when I see a statement, date or citation, I go immediately to the person’s section in my research binder and double check.

Aesthetics is important to me: the Hardenbrook genealogy resides in a sage green three ring binder featuring a color photo of my Grandmother Laura Wortman Hardenbook featured on the cover with her “famous” saying – “I will never give up the Hardenbrook name.”  The Hardenbrook research binder is white with a clip art tree on the cover sheet and spine labeled “Hardenbrook Family Research Documents.”  When I make a research trip for this family all I will need is the two binders.

I realize now that I should go through this process with each family line – how many rainy days will we have?