Through Her Eyes Thursday~"Inheritance" by Dani Shapiro

"Through Her Eyes" Thursday  is a genealogy prompt meant to help us see the world as our female ancestors would have. It's purpose is to encourage us to share things from the women's perspective of historical events.

Recently, I read an eye-opening memoir that explores a topic close to the heart of many women today: reproductive medicine and artificial insemination.

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro explores this topic through the eyes of the person most affected: the child.

Inheritance: A Memoir of
Genealogy, Paternity, and
 Love by Dani Shapiro

As a child, Dani always had the feeling of never quite fitting in with her family. However, she never quite knew why she felt that way. Several decades later, with the help of a DNA kit, she will have her answer.

But that answer opens up a Pandora's box of other questions for Dani. As you read her fascinating story, you get swept up in her search to find her identity, her history, her story.

Through her book, you will find that artificial insemination has a much longer history than most of us knew. We remember hearing in 1978 of Louise Brown, the world's first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization.

However, between Dani's book and an article I found, I discovered the history actually dates back to the early 1950's. According to an online article, "Artificial Insemination History: Hurdles and Milestones (Ombelet & Van Robays), the first successful human pregnancy was reported in 1953. "Considering the hostile climate for donor insemination at the time...it is not surprising that nearly a decade passed before the first successful birth...was announced in public."

Inheritance: A Memoir of
Genealogy, Paternity, and
 Love by Dani Shapiro

And this is where Dani's story comes in...As a "donor-concieved person" born in the early 1960's, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding her conception and birth. Her parents lived in an era when this was a taboo and forbidden topic.

She spends a good portion of the book looking at what happened through our modern lenses. 

"For a long while I was able to put myself in their shoes only as myself, product of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with all the biological, genetic, historical, and psychological tools available to me." (p. 222)

But once she was able to look at it through the eyes of her mother, and father, it changed her whole perspective of the situation.

"But now I was coming to the awareness that my young

 parents-to-be had none of these tools." (p. 223)

Dani discovered in the writing of this book, what family historians and genealogists need to keep in mind. It is not our place to question how, or why, a decision was made by our ancestors. However, if we do, it has to be done from their perspective.

3 Questions to Ask When Questioning Ancestors' Decisions

   1.) What was the culture of their times/place?

   2.) What information/tools would they have had at that time?

   3.) Who was the decision-maker? We have to remember that until           the last half of the twentieth century, it was predominantly the               father or husband.

If you are looking for a good book to read, this is at the top of my list for anyone. But it is an exceptional read for historians,  genealogists and family historians! In an age where DNA and technology aid our research into the past, this book asks some very important questions.

Source

Shapiro, Dani. Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.

(   Ombelet, W. and Van Robays. "Artificial Insemination History: Hurdles and Milestones". Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn 2015. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Accessed on 3/26/20.

Happy 3rd Blogversary to This Hoosier's Heritage!

On March 23, 2017, I started This Hoosier's Heritage to write stories about my family's history, and to share stories relating to genealogy and history in general.

And, it has turned out to be such a blessing in my life! I have had such interesting conversations with my cousins regarding the family stories that I have shared! Also, I have met new relatives through the blog. All of this would not have happened without This Hoosier's Heritage!

The genealogy blogging community that I have found is phenomenal! Everyone has been so encouraging and helpful! Between Twitter and FB, I have been a part of very informative discussions, like #AncestryHour and #GenChat.

And, last but not least, I have won I have won the "Willie Puckerbrush Award for a humorous poem in the 10th Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge, hosted by Bill West (https://westinnewengland.blogspot.com/)! If you would like to read the winning entry, you can find it here.

Hope you have enjoyed reading my posts! If you know of other people that would be interested, please share and encourage them to follow!

Through Her Eyes Thursday: 1918 Spanish Flu Hits Home

As you delve into your genealogy, you discover that historical events were more than just names and dates in your textbook. They were real events that impacted the lives of real people.

Most of us encounter this fact when we look back at our ancestors going off to war, living through the Depression and more. 

However, most of us do not think of a global pandemic affecting our families. For my Hillman ancestors, the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic was much more than a news headline.

This family photo was taken around the turn of the century, based on the age of baby Edna. My great-grandmother, Carrie, is surrounded by her siblings and parents.

Her younger sister, Lillian Moore Hillman, is a cute little 7 year old sitting at her mother's feet.

Thomas J. and Anna (Moore) Hillman.
Children (Clockwise from top left): Grace,
Carrie, Edna, Lillian, Maude, George

The years pass, and Lillian meets a handsome man by the name of John Anthony Maffey. Their thoughts turn to love, and they soon decide to get married.

John A. Maffey and Lillian M. Hillman

On December 22nd, 1917, the two marry in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. John is 28, and Lillian is 27 years old.

Marriage License for John A.
Maffey & Lillian M. Hillman

With Lillian's brother, George, overseas in Europe as part of the Rainbow Division in World War I, I am sure the newlyweds followed the headlines in the newspaper.

But, I do wonder if they looked past the war news, and caught the beginnings of what would later be known as the Spanish Flu.

According to Wikipedia, the 1918 influenza pandemic began in January 1918,  only a month after John and Lillian married. 

In those first months of marriage, I'm sure they paid more attention to each other than to the world around them. Lillian left her job as a clerk, and took care of their home. John continued working as a motorman in Cincinnati.

Tragically, the world news would come crashing into their world in the month of October 1918. Lillian was seen by a doctor at General Hospital in Cincinnati on October 16th, and by October 17th she died of broncho-pneumonia following influenza, according to her death certificate.

A short ten months after becoming man and wife, Lillian's life is tragically cut short and John is left a widow.

My great-grandmother and her siblings lost a sister, and their parents lost a daughter.

A life cut short, our family never had the chance to meet this beautiful lady.

Now that I've shared my story of my great-grand aunt, Lillian Moore Hillman Maffey ~ 

Has the Spanish Flu touched your family history? Do you have a story to tell?

My Photo Inheritance and My Legacy Plan

What I am about to admit will most likely make you gasp and sputter, and then consider reading me the riot act. And I truly beg your forgiveness.

On a chair in my front room sits a white cardboard box. It is filled to the top with envelopes and Ziploc bags chock full of photographs. I keep meaning to clear the table off and go through them all. 

Family Photos

But life just keeps getting in the way of that, day after day. Until this coming week, that is. As of next Wednesday, I will have five days off in a row with no immediate plans...except to remedy this situation!

My encouragement into not procrastinating any longer actually came from the Twitter #Genchat that I try to participate in with other genealogists. I had missed last Friday's and read through some of the discussion.

There were two questions in particular that made me give several sidelong glances toward the white box.

Q.1.) Did you inherit a jumble of family photos and documents?

A ~ Although I inherited several documents also, it is this box of photographs that I I truly consider a "jumble".  After my father's death several years ago, my four siblings and I emptied the house o ready it for sale.  As there was a lot to do in a short time, we split the photos quickly by sorting them into the Ziploc bags that we could each take home.

Boxful of Family Photos

Q.2.) Should you give any old photographs or artifacts to relatives or institutions now?

A ~ I actually have all kinds of plans for many of the photographs, some I have no idea what I will do with them, and lots of questions  for anyone that can help!

The Legal Question

For starters, I know that any of the photographs that were taken by a studio or professional photographer will have to be researched in regards to the copyright rule. If I am sending them to a more appropriate relative or institution, the research is not required. 

However, if I would like to publish it on the blog, my first stop would be a visit to Judy G. Russell's The Legal Genealogist  (legalgenealogist.com) article on "Copyright and the Old Family Photo". This is a wonderful resource for understanding the basics in an easy-to-understand format.

In July, I will be hosting a family reunion. I have started a private FB group page to pass on reunion information and to get to know each other better. I will be sharing some of the snapshots there to start identifying the subjects, other than my mother, uncle and grandmother.

I will mail a few to the families that would benefit more than I from having them in their possession.

I will be sending some to my hometown historical society to use as they see fit. The subjects in these photos were contemporaries of my parents, and I cannot identify them.

My Creative Side

I have already started using a few of these photographs in scrapbooking pages and craft projects.

Scrapbook Page for a New Album

Seven Generations Photo Collage (right
side edited for privacy)

Digitalizing

I have taken smartphone photos of my snapshots to add them to the blog, However, I have not had the chance to learn proper digitalization. When I am ready for that step, I will work my way through the whole box one photograph at a time.

A Few last questions

I have shared with you my sad tale of neglecting my photo inheritance, and my plans for rectifying the situation during next week's mini-vacation.

Now share your stories with me! What have you been able to accomplish with your photographs so far? What is your plan for the future?  

And one last nagging question 🤔 🤔 🤔...What do you do with the originals you do not want, no one else wants, and you have a hard time just throwing away.