It’s hard to know where to begin my family history story about Adaline Isabell LeMaitre. Belle is my paternal 2nd great grandmother. Her portrait has hung on the wall of my parents’ home my entire life. I used to stand in front of it in awe of her beauty. She reminds me of a pioneer…
Imagining what my ancestors looked like is akin to devising physical attributes of characters in novels. I put together descriptions, stories, history, and even old movies … anything that helps me create an image in my mind. I usually end up with a cross between family features and movie characters. I don’t conjure nonexistent photos…
At the end of the hallway at my parent’s house hang portraits of my dad’s great-grandmother, Isabelle LeMaitre, and her 2nd husband, Walter Seaver. Notice I didn’t say my dad’s great-grandparents. Walter, although loved by Isabelle, wasn’t our blood relation. Of her three husbands, she loved him best. My dad’s great-grandfather, Charles Daniel Essler, was…