My Viking Mama

by martha_jewett on April 7, 2013

 

My mtDNA says I'm a Viking.

My female line is Haplogroup I, found in Iron-Age Danish graveyards and medieval Viking burial grounds in Denmark and Scandinavia. I blogged about genealogical DNA tests, but never took the plunge until now.

Where do I come from? Who are my people? These are universal, perennial questions for memoir writers. Today, we ask: Where do I come from genetically? Who are my people genetically? We can differentiate male and female lines.

My imagination runs with this.

Through my father, I know a lot about my male line, the Jewetts. The earliest American Jewetts are two Puritain brothers from England, Deacon Maximilian Jewett and Joseph Jewett, whom I'll blog about some other time. I'm grateful for all the information provided by my family, as well as by The Jewett Family of America, History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America, Civil War historians Vicki ProfittDavid Welch, and Clay Feeter, and many other sources.

Before England, where did Jewetts come from? Normandy, France? Perhaps a village called Jouette, Fresney-le-Puceux? Did Jewetts go to England with the Norman Invasion in 1066? The surname Jewett (various spellings) supposedly starts showing up in England after the Normans took over. (The Normans used last names. The Anglo-Saxons didn't.) Other people hypothesize that the Jewetts were Jutes from Jutland (modern-day Denmark). Jutes conquered and settled eastern areas in England 200 years before the Norman Invasion, and earlier. Did the Vikings call themselves Jutes? (Jewetts?) Did Anglo-Saxons call them that? Did the name stick when surnames became part of the English scene? Who knows?

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Were the Jewetts Vikings? If they were, did they know my Viking females? Did they trek together in a Viking pack? Were they part of some sort of deep-ancestor tribe?

I love the image. It makes me want to sit around a campfire and I hate camping.

Still, it's a maybe.

At least I know why I like the Minnesota Vikings.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

{ 1 comment }

Still Point of the Turning World

by martha_jewett on March 19, 2013

Yesterday, on Fresh Air I heard Emily Rapp talking about her new memoir. The Still Point of the Turning World is about caring for her son, Ronan, who was born with Tay-Sachs. She said the worst day for her was not when Ronan died but the day she got the Tay-Sachs diagnosis.

What do you think?

Emily Rapp On Fresh Air

Tags: , ,

{ 0 comments }

Hospital No. 8

June 11, 2012

Tweet While blogger David Welch researched the famous Civil War nurse, Nellie M. Chase, he discovered a photo of my 2nd great-aunt, Mary Jewett Telford, who served as a nurse at Hospital No. 8 in Nashville, Tennessee. I blogged about this here. David also found on Cowan's Auctions the above photo, captioned "Nurses, Hospital No. 8, Summer '63." [...]

Read the full article →

More About Mary Jewett Telford

May 24, 2012

Tweet Thanks to David L. Welch for comparing a photo on Cowan's Auctions to Mary Jewett Telford. Is it Mary? He sees some resemblance. The wide-set eyes say yes. But the frizzy hair says no. Evan Marshall (my husband) and Clay Feeter (my cousin) say yes. I'm leaning toward yes. Last time I talked to Vicki Profitt she wasn't sure. There [...]

Read the full article →

A Fun Ancestor Activity: “My Grand Book”

November 29, 2010

Tweet Colder weather means more inside fun. My Grand Book is a craft project which creates a book about a child's immediate ancestors, up to great-grandparents. Paste in a photo. Fill in a few basics (name, birthday, hometown, likes and dislikes). After you create the book, you can tell stories about your ancestors. Your together time this holiday season can answer the question, "Who [...]

Read the full article →

Military Records

November 15, 2010

Tweet In honor of Veterans Day, Ancestry.com offered free access to military records. This weekend, my mother's cousin, Bill Teaford, found my maternal grandfather's World War I draft record. I am hungry for information about my grandfather, Ernest Teaford. Draft records show he was born in Norton County, Kansas, on September 22, 1894. His occupation is listed as "farmer and [...]

Read the full article →

Fiction-Writing Techniques Improve Memoirs

November 10, 2010

Tweet   Improve your memoirs–fast–using fiction-writing techniques. My friend, Debra Chaves Norwood, wanted me to share my suggestions about her memoir. So here is my "before" and "after" about "Under the Samán de Guerra," her memoir about  growing up in Venezuela.   BEFORE: I would lean out the window of our Volkswagen and strain to see ahead, excited [...]

Read the full article →

When A Place Still Exists

October 11, 2010

Tweet An important building in the Jewett family's Civil War experience still stands. It is a church. Thanks to Vic and Dollie Masters, parents of Civil War historian Vicki Profitt, for providing the current photo. And kudos to Clay Feeter, publisher of Standup Journal, for the old photo. Side-by-side they show the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee (on the right) [...]

Read the full article →

He Was A Statistic. He Was Also A Person.

October 7, 2010

Tweet Check out Di's blog memoir: He is a statistic. He is also a man. She writes about her grandfather, one of the 850 WWII vets who die every day:  "He was special in the sense that every kind and wonderful person is special. And he deserves to be remembered." In my blog about Frank McCourt, [...]

Read the full article →

Free Memoir Form: My Dossier

September 26, 2010

Tweet Here’s a free memoir form—a Dossier á la James Bond. I’ve been a 007 fan for a long time, starting with Ian Fleming's books and Sean Connery's movies, though I'm not crazy about Daniel Craig's 007 (way too brutal for me). Tom Hardy, recently in Inception, would be better. This past week marked the publication of The Secret History of MI6: 1909-1949 , the official history [...]

Read the full article →