Skip to main content

Heritage

We are French, Pennsylvania Dutch, German, Irish, and Cherokee Indian.

According to my full-blood related sister who did a little research on Ancestry.Com, our ancestors arrived on Ellis Island in the 1700's. We are related to a Daniel Danner who was a minister. At some point, he went to jail over a land dispute. No details that I can recall. And this lineage is from our paternal side. The surname, Holland figures in there somewhere or so I've heard.

I know naught of my paternal grandfather and little more of my paternal grandmother. I recall that she perished in a fire, leaving behind four children; my Uncle Herman, my Uncle John, my Aunt Daisy, and my father, David Lee Danner. I grew up not knowing this part of my family due to a divorce when I was 3 or 4 years old. I met my father when I was 15 years old.

I learned my father fought in the Viet Nam war aboard a patrol boat on the Mekong River. He retired out of the U.S. Navy moving to his home state. He was a deer hunter, a gensing gatherer, an outdoorsy guy. I never met my Uncle Herman and I was too young to remember my Uncle John. Aunt Daisy, I met briefly at a family picnic back when I was touring my newborn.

I never met my maternal great grandfather. My maternal great grandmother was a pistol, if my maternal grandmother is to be believed. I believe. I was very close to my grandmother as a child. Also, I was grandpa's girl. I idolized my maternal grandfather.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Creep

  Have you ever used the internet to look up an old flame? How about an old arch-enemy? Did you have the intention to reconnect? Me neither.

I Remember...

I remember catching fireflies,  putting them in a jar, as a girl of five. I picked pears off a tree that overhung an alleyway on my route home from school, then enjoyed the forbidden fruit. .I had a golden cat who chased a gray mouse through our living room sending my mother, 3-year old sister, and me screaming atop the sofa and chairs. We lived in a farmhouse and I watched Romper Room. A daddy longlegs skittered across my dirty kid legs as I teeter-tottered on a broken kitchen chair back. I played grocery store and laid out a bedroll for group nap time in preschool. We lived in an apartment attached to a bakery. My maternal grandparents visited and a photo was snapped. Grandma held Dawn and Grandpa held me. I held Grandpa's chin. Walking through the back of the flour-caked kitchen, I saw scrumptious pastries and colorful toys stuck in the cupcakes with my hungry kids eyes. We lived in a two-story apartment building next door to a large farmer's field.  That field was my