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

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...

Eleventh Heaven

Getting right to it, Tina's Twelve Days of Christmas nears it's crescendo:  ♫ On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... eleven Trophy Cupcakes, ten Snowman bright lights, nine Fran's dark chocolates, eight Christmas crackers, seven cotton candies, six bags of kisses, five red heart ornaments..........four rein-dogs poopin', three chocolate Santas, two red poinsettias, and a glass pickle to hang in the tree. ♫ I have to share with you, the effort my husband is making. He brought me a few different choices for the eleventh day of Christmas: Eleven candy canes, eleven Lindor truffles, and eleven Trophy Cupcakes. Of course, I cannot possibly eat all of the nummy goodies, so my caregivers are, deservedly, getting tasty holiday treats.

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.