TWISTED TREE ROOTS

Explaining our family tree is like tracing the tangled roots of an ancient oak, twisting, looping, and intertwining in ways that make sense to us, but leave others bewildered.

My maternal grandfather’s brother Enrico, married my father’s sister, Lydia. Their daughter’s Karen and Gay Lynn, are my first cousins, but also my aunts. Then there’s my mother’s sister, Norma, who married my father’s first cousin, Tom. Their children, Tom, Nick, Helene, Annette, Marie and Norma are my first and third cousins

Try explaining that to someone outside the family! The younger generations give up before the first branch is even mapped. “That doesn’t make sense” they say. But to us, it does, it’s just how our family grew, weaving together in ways that made our bonds even stronger. We may be cousins twice over, but more importantly, we are family, woven tightly, deep-rooted, and unbreakably connected.

P.S. If you can understand it, could you please explain it to my children? It even confuse Ancestry. They claim my father’s father Ettore is my paternal grandfather as well as father to my great aunt.