Rebecca Branch
I grew up with a father who was the world's best storyteller. Bedtime stories were made up on the spot and I was always the heroine. I loved him for this magical ability.
As a child, I was told that my father's parents came from English and French backgrounds. Grandma came from Paris and her name was Sophie Sagere. Grandpa could trace his lineage back to the 1640's when an ancestor was hung as a horse thief.
Papa always said he marveled at my Mom's ancestry because she could trace it back to the Bourbons and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in the fifteenth century. Furthermore, her last name was Etruscan which took her back to before the Romans.
As I matured and had the chance to meet relatives from all over the world, I found that Mom's history was correct. She was an Italian Contessa, daughter of the minister of agriculture in Fascist Italy, sidelined by Mussolini when they clashed over Italy's involvement in colonialism in Africa and then joining the Germans at war against England.
Papa's background was different. It turned out that his father was from Poland and his mother was from a Jewish family in Russia that emigrated to the USA after a pogrom. Papa was an atheist but always said he was Catholic. What was crazy was that his parents were exceptional people. Grandpa came to the States on his own by boat from Zagreb when he was ten! His parents were deceased. He befriended a doctor at Ellis island and was adopted. He attended Columbia University and became a pioneer in the fields of neurology and psychiatry and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. He then joined the US Army in WWI and was on the staff of General John Pershing, bunking with fellow staff officer, George Marshall, a lifelong friend. They ended the war as colonels. Grandpa worked at Walter Reed and then at Brooklyn Hospital. He was asked by FDR to head up the psychiatric division of the Army Medical Corps in WWII.
Grandma attended the Moscow Conservatory of Music and was a student of Tchaikovsky. She came here in her early twenties with her mother and two sisters. Traveling the world as a concert pianist, she met Grandpa, married, and both were socialites in the New York arts scene.
Now...I ask you, what was my father afraid of that he would make up an alternate history for his family. Although he wasn't raised Jewish, he came from a Jewish family. He grew up in the thirties when anti-Semitism was rife in America. Like many people who abandoned their backgrounds to just be Americans, my father made up his own history even though the truth was remarkable unto itself.
I have placed my own true family history into my books and have given it over to my main character, Maximilian DuPont. It is revealed and mentioned in each of my three books of my Art Historian Superhero Series. I celebrate where I come from and am pleased to have cleared up the mystery of my heritage, even if only through my fictional characters, but truth be told, I am most of the characters in my books. I write from experience and have loved watching my people grow through my stories.
Becca
As a child, I was told that my father's parents came from English and French backgrounds. Grandma came from Paris and her name was Sophie Sagere. Grandpa could trace his lineage back to the 1640's when an ancestor was hung as a horse thief.
Papa always said he marveled at my Mom's ancestry because she could trace it back to the Bourbons and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in the fifteenth century. Furthermore, her last name was Etruscan which took her back to before the Romans.
As I matured and had the chance to meet relatives from all over the world, I found that Mom's history was correct. She was an Italian Contessa, daughter of the minister of agriculture in Fascist Italy, sidelined by Mussolini when they clashed over Italy's involvement in colonialism in Africa and then joining the Germans at war against England.
Papa's background was different. It turned out that his father was from Poland and his mother was from a Jewish family in Russia that emigrated to the USA after a pogrom. Papa was an atheist but always said he was Catholic. What was crazy was that his parents were exceptional people. Grandpa came to the States on his own by boat from Zagreb when he was ten! His parents were deceased. He befriended a doctor at Ellis island and was adopted. He attended Columbia University and became a pioneer in the fields of neurology and psychiatry and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. He then joined the US Army in WWI and was on the staff of General John Pershing, bunking with fellow staff officer, George Marshall, a lifelong friend. They ended the war as colonels. Grandpa worked at Walter Reed and then at Brooklyn Hospital. He was asked by FDR to head up the psychiatric division of the Army Medical Corps in WWII.
Grandma attended the Moscow Conservatory of Music and was a student of Tchaikovsky. She came here in her early twenties with her mother and two sisters. Traveling the world as a concert pianist, she met Grandpa, married, and both were socialites in the New York arts scene.
Now...I ask you, what was my father afraid of that he would make up an alternate history for his family. Although he wasn't raised Jewish, he came from a Jewish family. He grew up in the thirties when anti-Semitism was rife in America. Like many people who abandoned their backgrounds to just be Americans, my father made up his own history even though the truth was remarkable unto itself.
I have placed my own true family history into my books and have given it over to my main character, Maximilian DuPont. It is revealed and mentioned in each of my three books of my Art Historian Superhero Series. I celebrate where I come from and am pleased to have cleared up the mystery of my heritage, even if only through my fictional characters, but truth be told, I am most of the characters in my books. I write from experience and have loved watching my people grow through my stories.
Becca
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