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It’s the season of good cheer, and I think it goes without saying that we all need a little bit of that right now. So this month, I won’t bore you with the tragic historical topics that I usually center on. Instead, let’s dive into what the holidays are supposed to be about: family.
“Family history” is not new, but it is an ever-growing subject of public interest. In a small place like Caroline County, personal stakes in our ancestry are especially poignant. There is something to be said about familial ties in old rural counties. The fact that I can bring up my father or grandfather and usually be met with recognition and reverence is quite different, I’d imagine, from living in Manhattan or Los Angeles. Family history to native Caroline Countians obviously carries a bit of weight.
But aren’t we capable of going deeper than a last name? Some take family history to mean tracing back your heritage to the very beginning of time. Of course, please do if it interests you for whatever reason; I will never judge someone for engaging with the past. However, family history doesn’t have to mean knowing the exact percentage of Irish you are– it can mean gleaning history from the family you possess right now. And that is the topic I’d like to address.
I was approached by a woman who told me that her mother, now in her 90s, was interviewed by a group of historians who were interested in her perspective as a teenage girl during World War II. Now, I want you to close your eyes and recall everything you know about WWII. My lucky guess is that what you know about the war is the war: the soldiers, the foreign enemies, the violence, the weaponry, and perhaps some significant events like Pearl Harbor or the dropping of the atomic bomb. This interview of someone who experienced life on the homefront tells us that the war was more than that. Its publication online ensures that interested individuals can also learn from this perspective. And, as her daughter told me, the recording has become a sentimental heirloom of her mother’s legacy that can be cherished long after she is gone.
You are capable of capturing similar unique and personal accounts of individuals who have lived through recent history. Yes, as much as it may pain some to hear it, the 80s, 90s, and possibly early 2000s are “recent history.” It may pain you even further to actually ask your parents and grandparents about their early lives (because they usually tell you whether you like it or not anyway). But treating kitchen table conversations about the good old days as historical research is entirely valid. We could debate whether memory is trustworthy or unbiased, but it is nonetheless essential. As with the WWII example, historical events are usually marked by their impact on the wide world, but what about the stories of individuals who lived through it?
I interviewed my maternal grandmother about her family and early life in Caroline County, as well as the broader story of her grandparents’ struggles as immigrants for a school project. Typically, I’d refrain from using my privilege as the person who gets to write this column to toute my own family’s history. Still, I’m going to tell you what I learned anyway, hopefully to inspire you to do something similar. I started my interview by asking my grandmother (her name is Christine Fike, for anyone interested) about her grandparents. She told me that her paternal grandparents, Ferdinand and Marie, came to America in 1903 and 1905 (respectively) as refugees from Czechoslovakia. Both passed through Ellis Island and ended up in New York, where they met and fell in love. They had been “sponsored” by separate families to come to the United States, meaning they were essentially indentured servants. Marie nannied and sewed, and Ferdinand did carpentry work. When their seven-year contracts with these families were up, they were given a small sum of money to get them started. Somehow, by the grace of God, they found themselves in Henderson, Maryland, around 1917.
Ferdinand built a two-bedroom house on a plot of land where he farmed and ran a furniture-making business. Marie took in sewing to make ends meet, as by 1929, the couple had eight little mouths to feed. One of them was my grandmother’s father, George Zlock. George married Lula Steele, who was from a generations-deep Caroline County bloodline. Pearl Harbor rocked the nation shortly after they married, and George immediately volunteered to fight in WWII. In case you were wondering, I was able to confirm all of this with my trusty Ancestry subscription.
This narrative still seems impersonal. But the stories that my grandmother weaved in along the way are irrevocably connected with my current family’s customs and traditions. Like her grandmother, she is an avid seamstress. She stresses the importance of hard work, dedication, and patriotism, which her father and grandfather instilled in her. Her parents and grandparents remembered the Great Depression all too well, teaching their children never to let anything go to waste (a virtue Mommom Chris may follow too religiously sometimes). Lastly, she explained that our family dinners and holiday celebrations stem from her upbringing, which centered on the family as the only constant in this unpredictable and usually difficult life.
Besides getting an A on the project, I received a better understanding of how my family fit into the giant historical happenings of the 1900s. As I said earlier, these personal accounts and varying perspectives are far too often lost to time. But I happen to know that around 90% of Americans possess a smartphone that records sound and video at the touch of a button. And we obviously don’t want to think about our loved ones passing on, but I’d like to offer you something else to consider: do you have a recording of your loved ones’ voices? If not, or even if you already do, use this holiday gathering season as an excuse to seek out this recent family history and save it for generations to come (even if they’ve already told you the story… multiple times).
In all seriousness, have a safe and happy holiday season– 2024 will soon be history!
