When I first started researching my Scottish family line, I could find nothing more beyond James Ross, a Scottish settler who came to the Bay Area, California, via Tasmania and Australia, in the 1840s. All I knew was that he was from one "Petty, Inverness-shire," and even that wasn't specific enough, since there were two towns named "Petty " in the Scottish Highlands. After putting it aside for some time, I decided to dig back into the research, and through Ancestry.com and my DNA test I found a DNA relative with connections through my Scottish ancestor. It just so happened that this living relative (still based in Scotland) had more family members listed going further back from James Ross, and so I was able to add a few more names, time frames, and was able to specify the Petty town that James was from. Petty was a small township or region just outside Inverness city proper. Today, there still stands the church that my ancestors were baptized and married in, Petty Church (photo below, right). Also in the area is the Connage Highland Dairy, which has the same name (Connage) as one birthplace of my ancestors. According the records I found, my ancestors seemed to have lived in the greater Inverness area at least a hundred more years beyond James Ross. But I imagine they'd lived there since forever. Many Scottish surnames relating to ancient clans can be traced to specific regions in Scotland, each with historical claims to one or more areas. According to the other surnames aside from Ross, they would have originated from Isle of Skye (MacNicol), and the northeastern most tip of of the Scottish mainland (Sinclair). Ross Clan is said to originate just north and east of Inverness, not too far from the city. There's a map below of Scotland with the general areas of each Clan Surname Some cool things about Inverness and the surrounding area: ~ Loch Ness is about 25 minutes away, to the southwest ~ The famous "Battle of Culloden" between the Jacobite resistance and the English took place just a few miles from the Petty area (ie "Outlander" Season 1 (TV Show) is essentially set where and when my ancestors lived there; I'm unclear as to how or if they were involved) ~ Findhorn Foundation, a eco-village, is another 30 minutes away to the east, and it is somewhere I had been wanting to visit for years when I was wanting to reward intentional communites. I had plans to visit well before I even knew about my Scottish ancestors. My great grandfather, Edward, playing his mandolin, circa 1921. The original photo (second slide) was taken in the front yard of the family home in New Orleans. Edward "Ed" Hartman was born Israel Handmann in July of 1896 in a small shtetl by the name of Igumen, Russia, (now called Chervyen, Belarus). He was a middle son of 10 children, born to Jewish parents living in a time of rising antisemitism in the Pale of Settlement. He and his family immigrated in 1906, a particularly poignant year in Ashkenazi immigration - this was a time when pogroms were reaching a pinnacle of hatred. The family originally arrived in New Jersey, but Ed, after serving in WWI as young fighter pilot, landed in New Orleans as a boarder in his future-wife’s family home. He and Rose married, had two kids, and opened a haberdashery in downtown New Orleans. After some familial issues arose regarding his storefront, Ed gave up the business to a cousin I believe, and moved his family to San Francisco where he opened another store. Fun facts: ~ Ed and his future daughter-in-law’s father each owned a haberdashery on Market Street, directly across the street from each other. ~ Ed was extremely gifted when it came to music. According to my uncle, who after hearing me play the family piano, as an untrained musician myself, said Ed also had a knack for just picking up an intstrument and figuring it out in a few minutes. He taught himself to play the piano and the mandolin. ~ According to family notes, Ed "ignored whatever he was not interested in." My mother confirms that Ed, although a very nice guy, was sort of in his own world about a lot of stuff. These little tid bits, as well as his keen ability to understand music, lead me to think that maybe he was on the Autism Spectrum. It’s hard to try to ascribe something like that to someone without really knowing them, but as a neurodivergent and self-identified autistic person myself, it’s nice to think about an ancestor who may have had similar ways of experiencing the world. [The image above is a black and white minimalist illustration of a seated white man with crossed legs holding and playing a mandolin. The man has glasses on, and has dark wavy hair parted in the middle. He is smiling wide. There are tufts of grass around the chair legs he’s sitting on, and a large simple circle drawn behind the man, off to the right side a bit. The image below is the original black and white photo the above drawing is based off of. It shows Ed, a white man with glasses and dark hair that is parted and greased in the style of the times, in his front yard. He is playing the mandolin, seated in a small framed wire-woven chair with crossed legs. He is smiling and leaning to the side a little. Behind him are a giant ceramic urn-shaped planter, and a small palm tree. In the background there is the railing from the house porch, and some more shrubbery.] Original photo of Ed
[CW: colonizer history] This is a portrait of one of my ancestors, my great great great grandfather Dr. José María Montealegre, once president of Costa Rica (1859-1863). I’m assuming this was taken around that time. I just think it’s a really great portrait and I feel I can tell a lot about him from it. He was a doctor and surgeon first, and was sort of pressured into being president during a time of some great political upheaval. He ended up leaving Costa Rica after his peaceful transfer of power still garnered him animosity from one of the following presidents, seeking asylum in the so-called Bay Area (Ohlone Land), where I was born and raised and live currently. He was a Pisces, and a bit reluctant to be in a position of power. He was known to be a man "unmoved by ambition and oblivious to parties and social divisions: the man who had never aspired to any political position," but while president he put forth the convention that would produce the Costa Rican Constitution of 1859. A note about his background: he came from a wealthy and highly political Spanish family of coffee plantation owners. There were high government officials of the Montealegre family in many of the Central American countries at the time. He came from immense privilege and his family caused great harm (an understatement) to the indigenous peoples of C. America, the African peoples who were enslaved, and the land and terrain in which they lived (ie plantations). Colonizer history is complex and heartbreaking. I try to acknowledge that as a part of my history as I dig more into my ancestry. I also try to give voice to my ancestors’ stories, in my own leanings of ancestral work. No matter how shameful or harmful. I don’t think these stories should be hidden. Too much repression and lack of acknowledgment of privilege and power and harm done. So I may start drawing more of my ancestors to let their stories see the light. [The image to the left is a black and white sketch of a portrait from the bust up of a suited, heavily mutton-chopped man with curly dark hair, all styled in the times of 1860s. He is gazing to the right with a soft but stoic look on his face. The image below is the original sepia-toned photo of portrait on which I based the sketch.] Original portrait photo of Jose Maria Montealegre
Here's a portrait of my great-grandmother Rose, dressed up as Queen Esther for Purim, circa 1918 in her New Orleans synagogue. I’m guessing the synagogue her family went to was the historic Touro Synagogue, since they lived just a few blocks away. I love how ridiculously long her hair is in the original picture (below, left) and her striking blue eyes. Also of note, when I first saw this picture of her I couldn’t help but associate it with the Jewish artist Ephraim Moses Lilien’s piece called “Queen of Shabbat” (below, right). Lilien was also a Galician (Austro-Hungarian) Jew, just like my great grandmother Rose, on her father’s side.
I’m just sort of amazed still that I have access to so many ancestral photos, at least on my mom’s side. Like hundreds of them that my grandma kept. I think retaining keepsakes was a bigger deal amongst my Jewish family, since often times family was lost too soon (via seeking refuge elsewhere, Pogroms, Holocaust). Or maybe the families were just particularly nostalgic, and privileged and lucky enough to be able to even sit for photos back then. [Above is a digital black and white sketch of a seated woman wearing a long draped tunic and head scarf styled as the biblical Queen Esther. She wears a tall headdress atop her scarf, with her long dark wavy hair flowing out from under it, and has a soft smile and dreamy eyes. In her arm she holds a scepter. Below (left) is the original black and white photo the sketch is based on. Also below (right) is Ephraim Moses Lilien's drawing of the "Queen of Shabbat," showing a woman seated in a similar position, on a throne with the Star of David etched into it. She is wearing a crown and a flowing gown with Hebrew letters patterned across it, and is cradling a Torah scroll in her arms. Behind the throne are twining vines with leaves, and a shadow-relief style pine forest in the background.] Grandma Joanie, my mom’s mom, looking stunning in a museum. I’m assuming my grandpa took this photo. Circa 1950s or so. It was a bit hard to capture her more demure smirky look in the original photo (below), but I do like how it turned out. She can be a very tough and sometimes cold person, so I feel the sketch I did catches this other side of her; perhaps I drew the side of her I am more familiar with... Anyways, it was still fun to do. I like the starkness of my grandma with her black hair and dark eyes, and the mirrored look of the young girl in the painting to the left, against the spaciousness of the white walls of that little corner of the museum. The original photo of Joanie in the museum
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