After several days away from writing for Views from the Edge, today’s Daily Post invitation to write something about ‘revelation’ struck a familiar chord, so to speak.
Andrews Casket Company mill in Woodstock, ME
Earlier this week an email arrived from a complete stranger who believed we were family. In a google search she had come across Views from the Edge’s photograph of the Andrews’ family property.
What’s that have to do with ‘revelation’?
It revealed a blood relative I didn’t know existed and led to the correspondence with the second-cousin I’d only met once on the old Andrews’ homestead years ago but had never forgotten.
The emails we’ve exchanged have removed the cover (i.e., ‘revealed’) from family origins that had remained hidden for almost 75 years.
The reflections of the second-cousin who grew up on the ancestral property of the Andrews family help explain both the sense of homesickness and forlornness I felt while visiting “The Hollow” last month. The latest visit confirmed the feeling expressed in “The Forlorn Children of the Mayflower” in “Be Still!”
Until this week’s correspondence, I hadn’t know the property was “The Hollow” to the relatives who grew up there, or as “Andrews Hollow” to the those whose relatives’ funerals had been handled by the Andrews family. It all came as a revelation.
So, today I take time out to write this post in reply to The Daily Post’s invitation. Perhaps life itself is a life-long pilgrimage of revelation – the unveiling of the deeper chords and cords of the DNA that lives on in the tissues and bloodstreams of later generations.
- Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, June 10, 2017.
Views from the Edge 
Hi there! I am a relative of yours! My grandmother was Mary E Dunham whose mother was Ruth Andrews. I am going to visit this area ASAP. I am so happy to have found this. ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi there, Cuz! What an unexpected treat to hear from you. Andrews Hollow is hallowed ground for me, in part because my memory goes back to early childhood. My mother and I lived with my grandparents — Eva Andrews Titus and LeRoy Titus — in South Paris, ME, while my father was away in WWII. One of my earliest memories (maybe 2.5 yrs. old) was trips to visit my great-grandfather Isaac Andrews, who was bed-ridden following a stroke, whose eyes grew big whenever I walked into the parlor of the main house on the Andrews property.
If you have opportunity to visit the property, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I’m eager to learn more about you, and hope you will respond here or on my Facebook page.
Thanks for making my day!
Gordon
LikeLike
I love genealogy and family history. I’ve had family find me through Facebook from other countries! This is an amazing time we live in. But I digress.
I think it’s great that you now have an answer—dark as it is—as to your feelings at The Hollow. Wishing you happier times moving forward.
LikeLike
Thank you, Staci, for your comment. I don’t believe we’ve met before. How did you find this post? Be well!
LikeLike
I can relate.
LikeLike
Karin, I know you can.
LikeLike