52 Ancestors Reboot

This isn’t so much a recipe or genealogy post, rather a “let’s get this 2022 party started” post. When Amy Johnson Crow launch her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge in 2014, I jumped at the chance to share my family research with, well, a small audience.

That was about three months after I started Rooted in Foods.

My first 52 Ancestors post was about my great-great grandma, Margaret Douglas. She holds a special place in my heart. Not because she was a great cook (although she may have been) but because she smoked cigars! From the stories I heard growing up, she was a bit of a rebel, and I love that.

A lot has changed since that first post, but my passion for genealogy has not. Instead, it bloomed into using food and heritage cookbooks as a way to learn more about the daily lives of my ancestors. It’s not a perfect foray into social history – there aren’t a lot of cookbooks about food from rural Southern Illinois. But, it’s easy to synthesize information and stitch together the bits and pieces to make sense of what information I do find.

I have not shared much of that specific journey on Rooted in Foods, so I am taking the 2022 52 Ancestors challenge as an opportunity to do just that – to reboot research that has become sporadic and make those food and cooking connections that paint the picture of what life was like “then”, whenever then happened to be.

Foundations

The 2022 52 Ancestors week 1 theme is “Foundations”. Foundations. I have repeated that word in my head all week.

I have thought of my mom’s cousin, Betty Jean, who ignited my already smoldering love of genealogy nearly 30 years ago. She’s well into her 90s now and still researching when she can. She will forever be my Sherlock and I her Watson. And her mother, Goldie, will forever be my doppelganger.

My mind has drifted to family friends Jack and Sue who played a large part in developing my love of history. Stepping into their home was like stepping through time. Sue’s kitchen was a kaleidoscope of cast iron pots and ceramic dishes, authentic to the times in which they most loved.

My Uncle David spurred a love of… well… many things, but open-fire cooking was definitely one of them. He also introduced me to French-Colonial history when I was about 7 when he took me (and my cousins) to the Rendezvous at the Fort de Chartres Historical Site near Prairie de Rocher, Illinois. This is also where I first heard bagpipes… Lord help my husband, I love bagpipes!

Above all, my parents… created a monster! Seriously, though, they took every opportunity to introduce me to food from different cultures beginning at a very young age. I was eating escargot when I was 15 (that was a long time ago and uncommon). Again, Lord help my husband… I love escargot. They also encouraged my interest in history. Every family vacation had at least one foray to a battlefield, historic site, museum, or something equally painful for my mom. She’s not the history nerd I am. She is a food nerd, though, and appreciates the history that comes with it.

Moving Forward with the Past

Foundations are important because they provide us with the strength to build upward. In life, they provide us the motivation to move forward, to build upon what we have already created.

As such, that is what 2022 will be for me… moving forward and building upon all that I have learned about my ancestors and the lives they lived. And sharing that – and some great food – with all of you.

Welcome to my 52 Ancestors reboot.